[sdiy] moving to SMD/SMT

[john mahoney]

>    Well howabout expensive, then?  1206 parts usually cost more, but
not
> too bad.  BUT!  Be sure that you use the correct sized part for the
> amount of current that you plan to be drawing!  IE, watch those
wattage
> ratings!  0805's are only 1/8 watt, 1206s are 1/4 watt.  1210's are
also
> 1/4 watt but tend to cost 3 times as much as 1206's!

Do you recommend a certain brand of resistor? Browsing through the
Mouser catalog, three brands look pretty comparable: Koa Speer, Vishay
(CRCW), and Xicon. These are all thick film, 1%.

And what about caps? Using ceramic chips in place of ceramic discs,
and tantalum chips for leaded tantalum seems obvious enough. Are
aluminum caps the choice for electrolytics?

This all started when I found a neat DAC that comes only in a TSSOP
package. I won't try to handle that until I've got experience with the
"large, bulky" SMDs. ;-)

By the way, do you make your own PCBs?
--
john