Bob, I certainly don't want to scare anyone away from trying SMT assembly at home, and my remarks have nothing to do with the fact that I'm offering assembled units for sale. In fact, I think that with a little practice it's actually easier to work with surface mount parts than through-hole parts. While you can probably use a fine-tipped iron to solder 0805 size or larger components, I don't think it would work so well with the TSSOP and MSOP packages I've been working with. The AD9834 is in a TSSOP-20 package, with a pad pitch of only .026 inch. The clearance between pads is only .008 inch, about the thickness of AWG 32 wire! I would not try that with an iron, but reflowing can be done with less than 50$ worth of equipment. I'll have more info on my blog this weekend.
Again, I would very much encourage homebrewing with surface-mount technology, but it's much easier and more successful, and more fun, if you use good techniques. By the way, I'm also an engineer, and teach surface-mount techniques at a regional campus of Purdue. --- In [email protected], "g8voip" <g8voi.reeve...@...> wrote: > > Hi Pete, > > Sorry, but the statement about 'NEVER' hand soldering SMD components is > simply scaremongering! > > SMD components can easily be soldered by hand, and that is a far more > reliable method for home construction than any of reflow or other crazy > methods often attempted by amateurs. Those methods, without a lot of practice > are almost certain to poor joints and unreliability. > > What has to be remembered is that 'certain' individuals have a 'commercial' > interest to sell their own product and therefore appear to be trying to > persuade people that it is unreliable or impossible to hand solder SMD > components, yet nothing is further from the truth. Hopefully people have the > sense to realise this. > > With well over 20,000 SoftRock kits sold, and probably 99.99% of those having > had the SMD components hand soldered, says it all. > > As both a amateur, and a professional electronics engineer, I have worked > building and repairing PCB's with SMD components since their introduction. I > regularly work on SMD boards using mainly 0402 or 0603 components which can > still be soldered by hand. > > Most amateur kits use mainly the larger 0805 or 1206 sizes which are > considerably easier to use. > > For anyone who might be put off trying SMD work, give it a try, once you get > over your initial fear, you will find that it is actually much easier than > messing around with leaded components. > > Of course, you could just go out and buy a 'commercial' product, but you will > have far more fun and learn a lot more doing it yourself, not forgetting it > will be considerably cheaper as well. > > 73, Bob G8VOI > > --- In [email protected], "Peter" <pegood@> wrote: > > > > I definitely agree with Larry about the SMT soldering techniques. SMT > > assembly is not bad IF you use the right tools and techniques. I will be > > posting some more info on that on my blog, probably tomorrow, but one of > > the things you should NEVER do (in my opinion, that is) is use wire solder > > and a soldering iron. More on that later. > > > > Since there has been a lot of unencouraging discussion about Hank's > > problems with a particular SDR in a Thread entitled "LD-1 Discussion ...", > > I'd like to point out that the SDR Hank is struggling with is NOT, repeat, > > NOT an LD-1. 73, Pete, NI9N > > >
