I've made several AltusMetrum boards of various flavors (~20 in total). Under my binocular dissecting (7-40x) microscope is where most work occurs. Parts need to be close, but don't have to be perfect. Heating on a laboratory hot plate after a final double-check of part alignment. The saw filter is definitely the tricky bit; buy extra if you haven't ordered yet. They are nearly impossible to desolder and salvage. Make sure you have the hardware / toolchain to flash the boards as well.
I can populate three TeleMega boards in about 4-5 hours; and it is not a short 4-5 hours. Well worth the experience. Other random hints: =============== Buy good ESD-free tweezers (very fine tip) Don't be afraid to redo the past if it doesn't look beautiful (alignment and amount) Triple-check to make sure you have all parts; it is a pain to add one or two later Have a good system for identifying and locating parts on the board Solder paste will dry out as you go; be quick about your work Make sure your parts have good contact with the paste to avoid "tombstoning" Have fun! Doug On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 3:42 PM, Jared Szechy <[email protected]> wrote: > I just sent off to have some TeleMega PCBs and masks made and was planning > on building a few of these boards myself. I was curious if others have > assembled these by hand and what their experience was like doing so. What > reflow methods have you used (air, oven, hotplate, etc)? > > Thanks, > Jared > > _______________________________________________ > altusmetrum mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/altusmetrum > >
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