[sdiy] SMT?

[Paul Schreiber]

If you stay away from "nano-sized" parts, soldering SMY is pretty easy. I
like 1206 resistors and 0805 caps.
That way, I can never guess wrong:) and, the 1206 resistors have the values
on them.

The downside is *production*. SMT stuffing houses want to see 1000 pc boards
stuffed at once. There are
some local (Dallas, TX) shops that will "hand stuff' small SMT runs for
about 20% *more* than thru-hole.

But, these talented folks can hand solder 208-pin 0.5mm pitch parts *by
hand*. They use a special optical
alignment microscope called a MANTA System.

Paul S.