Basic Tools for Surface Mount.
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From: RogerN on 31 Jan 2010 12:17 I'm needing to get some basic tools for surface mount stuff. Already have a heat gun and soldering station plus basic electronic instruments, meters & scope. Need magnifier, would the head band type or a clamp on arm lamp/magnifier be best? Or both? I guess tweezers? Do you use some sort of paste to hold components or just hold them down and solder? Any other items to consider? Panavise with circuit board holder? Thanks RogerN
From: Ecnerwal on 31 Jan 2010 13:36 In article <ZLOdnbq7_ay6JvjWnZ2dnUVZ_sWdnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>, "RogerN" <regor(a)midwest.net> wrote: > I'm needing to get some basic tools for surface mount stuff. Already have a > heat gun and soldering station plus basic electronic instruments, meters & > scope. > > Need magnifier, would the head band type or a clamp on arm lamp/magnifier be > best? Or both? > > I guess tweezers? Do you use some sort of paste to hold components or just > hold them down and solder? > > Any other items to consider? Panavise with circuit board holder? Depends on you, I guess. Some people make a whole production out of it. I got by fine with magnifying glasses (strong reading glasses), a good strong light, a fine tip on a temperature controlled soldering iron, small-diameter multicore solder, and a good pair of tweezers. I did pick up a hot air iron with the income from the work I did with the first set of tools, but more for getting things off (rework) than for putting them on. Hot tweezers might be nice sometimes, but have not been worth the cost to me yet. I haven't used solder paste yet and have no plans to. To put components on, tin one pad, solder device to that pad, solder pin in opposite corner (or other pin from 2-terminal devices), remelt first pin to relieve stresses, solder remaining pins. -- Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
From: Leon on 31 Jan 2010 14:23 On 31 Jan, 17:17, "RogerN" <re...(a)midwest.net> wrote: > I'm needing to get some basic tools for surface mount stuff. Already have a > heat gun and soldering station plus basic electronic instruments, meters & > scope. > > Need magnifier, would the head band type or a clamp on arm lamp/magnifier be > best? Or both? > > I guess tweezers? Do you use some sort of paste to hold components or just > hold them down and solder? > > Any other items to consider? Panavise with circuit board holder? > > Thanks > > RogerN I use a Metcal system with an STSS power unit, MX-500 handpiece and MX-500 cartridges. I use a powerful pair of reading glasses or a stereo microscope for magnification. Leon
From: Jon Slaughter on 31 Jan 2010 14:51 RogerN wrote: > I'm needing to get some basic tools for surface mount stuff. Already > have a heat gun and soldering station plus basic electronic > instruments, meters & scope. > > Need magnifier, would the head band type or a clamp on arm > lamp/magnifier be best? Or both? > > I guess tweezers? Do you use some sort of paste to hold components > or just hold them down and solder? > > Any other items to consider? Panavise with circuit board holder? > > Thanks > > RogerN It's not so much the tools but the technique. I ws doing some 402's quite easy with just a normal iron and tweezers. I did some 0.5mm pitch 32 pin QFN's with just an iron by presoldering(lightly) the pads on the pcb and chip then heating the pads. I had problems at first and it's not perfect as sometimes you do nto get connections but it is not at all difficult with some practice. I had head band magnifying glasses of course but it is probably not needed. The biggest problem you'll run into using this method is not getting a flush surface which causes the IC's to tilt and positing them(which isn't hard it seems as many times I was able to get them spot on the first attempt in a few seconds). The tilt is not a huge issue if it's not too bad but it allows more solder to get in between the pads which can cause shorts. Again, it's not has hard as it might seem at first thought and once you do a few and figure it out it comes an order of magnitude easier. For the QFN's, I would pre-solder the pads ever so slightly(using a lot of flux and the solder on the tip rather than from wire). Put a lot of flux on the pads and position the ic using tweezers and line up the pads on all sides. Head up a few traces connected to the pad to melt the solder and hopefully form a bond. If done it will anchor the ic so that you won't move it if you bump into it with the iron. Then it's just a matter of using solder on the pads and drawing the iron across them. You can easily tell when the pad's "take" the solder as it will form a "knee". If you have issues with opens or shorts it's usually just a matter of running the iron with a bit more solder across them. I did not pre-solder the thermal pad as this almost always created a large tilt making it difficult to keep the pins from shorting. A hot air gun helps a lot to remove ic's that you screwed up. out of about 30 QFN's I had major problems only about 3 times. All the other problems were simple fixes by drawing the iron across the pads with a little more solder and flux.
From: qrk on 1 Feb 2010 13:38 On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:17:17 -0600, "RogerN" <regor(a)midwest.net> wrote: >I'm needing to get some basic tools for surface mount stuff. Already have a >heat gun and soldering station plus basic electronic instruments, meters & >scope. > >Need magnifier, would the head band type or a clamp on arm lamp/magnifier be >best? Or both? > >I guess tweezers? Do you use some sort of paste to hold components or just >hold them down and solder? > >Any other items to consider? Panavise with circuit board holder? > >Thanks > >RogerN > If your only doing this for hobbby, then magnifier on a head band will work. Fine tip soldering iron and small solder (10 or 15 mil diameter) and flux. If you need to solder parts with hidden thermal pads, toaster oven or waffle iron (with fippable plates for grilling sandwiches). Waffle iron works better than toaster oven unless you have really tall parts. If you are doing SMT work often (not production), I'll recommend: * Stereo microscope. I end up using 7x to 10x for 0402 parts. 0805 doesn't need any magnifiying help unless your eyesight is bad. Cheap $500 Chinese scopes work fine, but you may need to adjust the optics to get the alignment right. http://www.amscope.com/ * Two soldering irons. Metcal (OKI) is highly recommended with small tips. Two irons are handy for removing resistors and capacitors. http://www.hmcelectronics.com/ has a good selection of Metcal irons. * 10mil solder for 0402 and 0.5mm pitch ICs. Otherwise, 15mil solder is fine. Flux is very helpful for soldering ICs. * Preheater. I like the Madell unit. http://www.ntscope.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MTC&Product_Code=QK853&Category_Code=RS I raised the top plate 1/4" and made a new one which is larger. * Hot air soldering system. For occasional work, the Madell unit works fine. http://www.ntscope.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MTC&Product_Code=QK857D&Category_Code=RS I'm doing 8-pin 2x2mm packages, and larger, with this unit. -- Mark
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