SparkFun has some good material for learning some basic SMT techniques:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/hdr.php?p=tutorials See about 1/2 down, "Surface mount soldering tutorials." Personally I go one of two routes: (1) reasonably fine-tipped temperature-regulated soldering iron, the smallest diameter solder I could find on Mouser, and solder wick. Good part removal is virtually impossible with this setup. (2) hot air rework station, solder paste for initial part placing and part removal. Fine-tipped temperature-regulated soldering iron, small diameter solder, and solder wick as well for touch-up. There's lots of other inexpensive techniques as well but that's what I've used so far with decent results. The nice thing about #2 vs. other reflow techniques (i.e. oven, hot plate) is that you can slowly build and test parts of the board without having to reheat the entire board. Oven/hot plate is better though once you have finished testing initial prototype and want to build a larger number of boards - I just haven't done that yet. It's not that hard once you get the technique down. --James From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Butts Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 17:13 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: gEDA-user: Using SMT I'm about to start bread boarding a desin. I have a few surface mount chips that I got SMT-to-DIP adapters for. I also purchased SMT paste. I have never worked with surface mount devices. How do you paste the chip to its footprint? How do you get the excess, if any, paste out? I have a feeling it's got something to do with heating it. Thanks, Rob
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