[sdiy] dual "VCA" chip

[Tim Ressel]

I have hand soldered 0.5mm parts. But I didn't enjoy it. The hard part for me (besides just seeing the darned thing) is getting the part placed perfectly on the pads and tacked down before my heart beats again and moves it. Sniper training helps ;-)

Once the part is tacked down soldering is easy. Get yourself a flux pen and hose down the offending IC. Then just drag the tip of your iron across the pins. The residual solder on the iron is plenty to solder those tiny little leads. Then go back with teeny tiny solder wick and clean up the inevitable bridges.

--Tim (bats call me blind) Ressel


--- On Sat, 1/3/09, Seb Francis <seb at burnit.co.uk> wrote:

> From: Seb Francis <seb at burnit.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] dual "VCA" chip
> To: "Matthew Smith" <matt at smiffytech.com>
> Cc: "Synth-Diy" <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
> Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009, 6:12 PM
> Matthew Smith wrote:
> > Quoth Seb Francis at 2009-01-04 11:44...
> >> I used to think like that, but have been going
> more and more towards SMT.  Admittedly one has to use
> adapters or thru-hole versions if building a prototype on
> breadboard, but from a PCB point of view SMT is just better,
> smaller & cheaper... (IMO!)
> > 
> > I know that a lot of people are vary wary of using
> SMDs but they ARE suitable for hand-assembly, although I
> hold some reservations about BGA packages in this respect.
> > 
> > Whilst the older/larger packages can be soldered by (a
> steady) hand, even the fine pitched devices can be soldered
> at home using hot-air reflow equipment, hotplates or toaster
> ovens.  (Yes, toaster ovens can make handy soldering
> equipment.)
> > 
> 
> I've not found anything yet, even fine pitched
> packages, that can't be soldered by hand with a normal
> soldering iron and the right technique (BGAs excluded!).  I
> wrote a short tutorial on it here:
> http://burnit.co.uk/sdiy/index.php?page=4xd&subpage=soldering
> 
> My last project used 0.65mm pitch ICs, and my current one
> uses 0.5mm pitch.  I don't anticipate any problems
> soldering these by hand (just waiting on the PCBs being
> fab'ed at the moment..)
> 
> And with plenty of low cost prototype PCB manufactures
> around, SMD makes a lot of sense.
> 
> Seb
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Synth-diy mailing list
> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy