On Thu, 2 Apr 2009, Duncan Drennan wrote: > > How do you handle this problem? Or is it a problem? > > If you choose your SMD chips carefully then SMD parts are not a > problem. If possible choose devices with larger pitches (1.27mm over > 0.65mm).
I've found 0.4mm to be my practical limit for using a soldering iron (recently, an LQFP-80 with 0.4mm pitch). It goes much easier with a syringe of solder paste - I've found the Edsyn CR44 (IIRC) is a paste that has a good shelf life and doesn't need special treatment. Things like SOIC are really easy to do with a soldering iron. 0.5mm gets tricky and 0.4mm is about three times as hard as 0.5mm (from both the perspective of managing to etch a board with 8/8 rules reliably, and solder the chip to it). I've found for discrete components, 0604 is just about the right tradeoff of size to hand solderability. (Again, solder paste and hot air makes it easier). _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list [email protected] http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
