Re: Hand Soldering

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 11:16:00 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:41:39 -0000, jsc59@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

[snip...snip...]
I know it depends on equipment and skill. I've done some soldering
before, but not much. We have medium quality soldering irons (not
tiny tips) and basic magnification (no microscopes).

Thanks,
-J

They're all hand solderable. The real indicator of difficulty is lead
pitch. 50 mils is easy; 20 mils takes more care and skill, and careful
post-inspection for solder bridges.

As John says, 20 mil (0.5 mm) pitch is quite do-able by hand with a
modicum of care. An Optivisor (a.k.a. geek helmet ;-) is useful. A
medium tip is also fine; better, actually, for "wave tip" soldering,
where a bead of solder is drawn across the package leads.

Some useful tutorials at
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/hdr.php?p=tutorials

If you don't have access to a rework station (I've become a True
Believer for hot air), a ChipQuik starter kit might be a good
investment if you do work with the many-legged SMT devices.

Since you're not likely to want to
spend a lot of time practicing, try to use dip or larger-pitch parts
for now.

Good advice...
.