[sdiy] The Dreaded ROHS

[Tony Clark]

> Does anyone have any idea how ROHS affects those of us who might make
> PCBs or modules which we then sell, on a hobby basis?

   Hi Matthew,

   Having been an early adopter of ROHS (1 year early), I know a lot about
how it affects manufacturing and (currently) small companies.
   First, if you plan to ship to the EU and other foreign countries, you
may need to worry about being ROHS compliant.  If you don't, then you
don't need to deal with it.
   If you do plan to ship overseas, then all you need to do is to consider
the following:

   Is your product a stand-alone product?

   If yes, then you probably need to conform to ROHS standards.

   If no, then will your product to be used as part of a product that was
manufactured before ROHS took effect?

   If yes, then you do NOT need to conform to ROHS standards.
   If no, then you should be conforming to ROHS standards.

   That's the basic gist of the whole deal.  There are a ton of exemptions
and certain industry segments that get around ROHS, but that's mainly
medical, telecom, and military stuff.

   Now as far as shipping goes, I have _yet_ to run into any ROHS
problems, most likely because I'm not shipping 1000's of items in big
bulk orders.  But as none of my items are stand-alone products and made
only for items that existed before ROHS took effect, I'm happy to keep
using lead solder.

   Hope that helps.

   Tony

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