Through Hole vs. Surface Mount
in [Design]
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From: Chris on 28 Mar 2010 19:16 I have just completed a designing a board that has 5 16 pin ICs. I was planing on etching and drilling myself, but after my last project took for ever to drill far fewer holes, I was considering going surface mount. I am only planing to make three at first. Should I stick to through hole for the ease of hand soldering, or should I switch to decaf and wait a month and try my hand at surface mount. Comments Welcome, Chris Maness
From: Ecnerwal on 28 Mar 2010 19:27 In article <fbd910e4-f10e-42d8-a193-bb9c7a1cd19f(a)c2g2000pre.googlegroups.com>, Chris <christopher.maness(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I have just completed a designing a board that has 5 16 pin ICs. I > was planing on etching and drilling myself, but after my last project > took for ever to drill far fewer holes, I was considering going > surface mount. I am only planing to make three at first. Should I > stick to through hole for the ease of hand soldering, or should I > switch to decaf and wait a month and try my hand at surface mount. No need to switch to decaf. Just don't clench the iron; let the tip stay put, and if your hand wiggles, the iron wiggles in your hand and the tip stays put heating the pad. I avoided SMT for years, and then found that it was trivial to hand solder the stuff when I had to do some. -- Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
From: Rich Webb on 28 Mar 2010 19:36 On Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:16:18 -0700 (PDT), Chris <christopher.maness(a)gmail.com> wrote: >I have just completed a designing a board that has 5 16 pin ICs. I >was planing on etching and drilling myself, but after my last project >took for ever to drill far fewer holes, I was considering going >surface mount. I am only planing to make three at first. Should I >stick to through hole for the ease of hand soldering, or should I >switch to decaf and wait a month and try my hand at surface mount. Surface mount is do-able. A good place to start is looking at the tutorials over at http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorials.php As far as the holes go, you may want to at least try using 1/32" stock instead of 1/16" for your homebrew projects. Much easier to cut (heavy scissors will work) and drill. There is some loss of strength and stiffness, though, so it's not an all-purpose solution. -- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
From: David Eather on 28 Mar 2010 19:43 On 29/03/2010 9:16 AM, Chris wrote: > I have just completed a designing a board that has 5 16 pin ICs. I > was planing on etching and drilling myself, but after my last project > took for ever to drill far fewer holes, I was considering going > surface mount. I am only planing to make three at first. Should I > stick to through hole for the ease of hand soldering, or should I > switch to decaf and wait a month and try my hand at surface mount. > > Comments Welcome, > Chris Maness Is there a reason you don't want to go to one of the cheap Chinese or Bulgarian PCB makers? It will be much quicker than going the decaf route and for three boards not so expensive.
From: Martin Riddle on 28 Mar 2010 19:44
"Chris" <christopher.maness(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:fbd910e4-f10e-42d8-a193-bb9c7a1cd19f(a)c2g2000pre.googlegroups.com... > I have just completed a designing a board that has 5 16 pin ICs. I > was planing on etching and drilling myself, but after my last project > took for ever to drill far fewer holes, I was considering going > surface mount. I am only planing to make three at first. Should I > stick to through hole for the ease of hand soldering, or should I > switch to decaf and wait a month and try my hand at surface mount. > > Comments Welcome, > Chris Maness I second the SMT try. It's not as difficult as it seems. Get a good magnifier , headband type. A good pair of tweezers, fine tips for your iron, and fine 0.015" solder helps too. There are some good parts out there that only come in SMT. Cheers |