Soldering was easier younger ~ Reef-pi PH

[speedstar]

Well I was able to get the chips set on the board and they trace and pinout good. One chip slipped on me luckily it was the one with room for the mistake. I'll prob set the rest of the components later in the weekend, just wanted to knock off the harder ones first.

Thanks to everyone that continues to pour into this project.

 

[theatrus]

Well I was able to get the chips set on the board and they trace and pinout good. One chip slipped on me luckily it was the one with room for the mistake. I'll prob set the rest of the components later in the weekend, just wanted to knock off the harder ones first.

Thanks to everyone that continues to pour into this project.

Time for some hot air to pick it up and move it back :-D

(that or a really wide tip across all the pins, if you want to fix it, which its probably not worth doing)

 

[Ranjib]

I have still not dared to do this (SMT), so looking forward to your progress. I am still thinking on what equipment I should get.

 

[speedstar]

I have still not dared to do this (SMT), so looking forward to your progress. I am still thinking on what equipment I should get.

I have used a standard weller wes51 / 4X with the finest tip since I started soldering in the 90's. Never have done enough surface mount to buy the other tools

The rest of this board is easy, I just was worried about the spacing of the IC's leads.

 

[theatrus]

I have used a standard weller wes51 / 4X with the finest tip since I started soldering in the 90's. Never have done enough surface mount to buy the other tools

The rest of this board is easy, I just was worried about the spacing of the IC's leads.

For ICs, I recommend (and do) just use a very large chisel tip. Load up the tip with some solder, apply a _lot_ of flux to the board (tacky non rosin works best), and drag solder all the pins. The flux is key.

 

[Diamond1]

The board looks great. Is reef pi support in place for these yet?

 

[speedstar]

The board looks great. Is reef pi support in place for these yet?

@Ranjib is currently adding it. He has begun testing see this thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-pi-ph-orp-adapter.478158/

 

[speedstar]

For ICs, I recommend (and do) just use a very large chisel tip. Load up the tip with some solder, apply a _lot_ of flux to the board (tacky non rosin works best), and drag solder all the pins. The flux is key.

ill have to try this. I tin every solder pad, then use a pic to hold the ic down while touching each pin till i see flow.

 

[ScottBrew]

I'm reasonable ok at soldering through hull... I mean, hole components but have never done any surface mount, so a little nervous about trying. Someone that's good at something, makes it look so easy!

skip to the 6:00 mark.

 

[Ranjib]

I'm reasonable ok at soldering through hull... I mean, hole components but have never done any surface mount, so a little nervous about trying. Someone that's good at something, makes it look so easy!

skip to the 6:00 mark.

We are on the same boat

 

[crusso1993]

I can't believe I just spent 11 minutes watching a guy solder. However, it was informative and a bit entertaining. Hey, don't forget, "Bob's your uncle!" ;-)

 

[theatrus]

I have still not dared to do this (SMT), so looking forward to your progress. I am still thinking on what equipment I should get.

Personal recommendations:

- Temp controlled solder station. Really, any of them. The Hakko line is fine. Just avoid the no-control straight plug in irons.
- Flux. I like https://www.amazon.com/AMTECH-NC-559-ASM-TF-No-clean-solder-dispensing/dp/B078W4HBW5/. Most any will do. I don't really like the pens, prefer syringe or liquid form (which I use one of the solvent bottles). The pure liquid ones which leave basically no residue can be harder to work with since your working time when in contact in flux is mere seconds, so something that sticks to the board and pins for awhile is much preferred.
- Chisel tips. Avoid conical tips. You want a "reasonable" size one, and a small one for your soldering iron. Dave uses a hoof tip for the drag soldering, which is a great choice but honestly takes a bit more practice to not make a mess of things.
- Straight sharp point small tweezers. There are a lot of variants, something like this works: https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-3-SA-Non-Magnetic-Microelectronics-Applications/dp/B00FZPEWI6/
- Vision enhancement of your choice. I don't solder with it, only use it to inspect afterwards.

Really nice to have extras:

- Hot air station of some kind. There are some cheap ones on Amazon, can't recommend or not recommend them. Avoid the ones with built in soldering stations, since those are almost always trash. I personally use a Quick 861D now after using the Aoyue [some numbers]++ stations. You don't need anything this nice. https://www.amazon.com/Quick-861DW-Digital-Station-Display/dp/B00EID23J6. Why hot air? Removing parts. Heat, use tweezers, pop off. Apply flux, heat, place new part on board, bam.
- Boards using a flat finish. ENIG or Silver. Avoid OSP (hard to work with). HASL gets all lumpy and its hard to place chips _flat_ on the board, which matters for finer pitch and higher pincounts and leadless (QFN). Yes this costs more to order ENIG PCBs, but its worth it (plus they have that gold lustre, though cheap ENIG barely contains any gold)

For most chips I tack down one pin on each corner, and then drag solder the rest.
For passive components, I go around the board and place solder on _one_ pad of each component. Apply more flux. Go around, hold the part with tweezers and tack down one side of each resistor/capacitor nicely onto the pad. Solder the second half once you've placed things. Trying to solder both halves at once is much harder, and does require the large chisel tip to bridge both

 

[Diamond1]

Great video and tips. Makes me think I might be able to do this.

 

[ScottBrew]

Personal recommendations:

- Temp controlled solder station. Really, any of them. The Hakko line is fine. Just avoid the no-control straight plug in irons.
- Flux. I like https://www.amazon.com/AMTECH-NC-559-ASM-TF-No-clean-solder-dispensing/dp/B078W4HBW5/ for the most part. Most any will do. I don't really like the pens, prefer syringe or liquid form (which I use one of the solvent bottles)
- Chisel tips. Avoid conical tips. You want a "reasonable" size one, and a small one for your soldering iron. Dave uses a hoof tip for the drag soldering, which is a great choice but honestly takes a bit more practice to not make a mess of things.
- Straight sharp point small tweezers. There are a lot of variants, something like this works: https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-3-SA-Non-Magnetic-Microelectronics-Applications/dp/B00FZPEWI6/
- Vision enhancement of your choice. I don't solder with it, only use it to inspect afterwards.

Really nice to have extras:

- Hot air station of some kind. There are some cheap ones on Amazon, can't recommend or not recommend them. Avoid the ones with built in soldering stations, since those are almost always trash. I personally use a Quick 861D now after using the Aoyue [some numbers]++ stations. You don't need anything this nice. https://www.amazon.com/Quick-861DW-Digital-Station-Display/dp/B00EID23J6. Why hot air? Removing parts. Heat, use tweezers, pop off. Apply flux, heat, place new part on board, bam.
- Boards using a flat finish. ENIG or Silver. Avoid OSP (hard to work with). HASL gets all lumpy and its hard to place chips _flat_ on the board, which matters for finer pitch and higher pincounts and leadless (QFN). Yes this costs more to order ENIG PCBs, but its worth it (plus they have that gold lustre, though cheap ENIG barely contains any gold)

For most chips I tack down one pin on each corner, and then drag solder the rest.
For passive components, I go around the board and place solder on _one_ pad of each component. Apply more flux. Go around, hold the part with tweezers and tack down one side of each resistor/capacitor nicely onto the pad. Solder the second half once you've placed things. Trying to solder both halves at once is much harder, and does require the large chisel tip to bridge both

Great information and have added a few things to my Amazon cart. Not the recommended hot air station, can't justify a $300 item for something so limited use for myself.