Actually I think you will find that if you read the site carefully they have given up on the toaster oven and are now using a fry-pan, albeit a non-stick electric one.
Like many of us involved in doing small prototype work with the new, and very small SMD devices, we often have to think laterally about how we do things. I have also used the mylar film stencils (also cut by http://www.pololu.com ) and they work very well. Although I have probably never used one more than two or three times, prototyping is like that. For small boards I tend to use a small lab-type hotplate I stole from the guys in the chem lab. We used to use it for soldering flanges onto waveguide, but it got put in the back of the cupboard and now does a sterling job of reflowing solder cream. To assist the surface tension sometimes on these boards you do tend to use a little bit of liquid flux. On many of the tiny pads there is so little solder that it doesn't do the job, the flux tends to help! For small hand assembly work many of the traditional aids just don't cut it. You cant afford to do a stainless steel stencil for 10 small boards. Conventional screening frames are often more trouble than they are worth. Many of the small infrared ovens you see advertised in the trade press and on ebay are about as useless as .... well I am sure you get the idea. However there are some really nice dispensing and handling systems at bargain prices on ebay these days. Those tiny suction hand-pieces for picking and locating SMD parts are really really useful. Choice of soldering irons is important too. Many of the "hobbyist" haven't realised that if you spend money you get something worthwhile. I had been using Weller for years, and some Pace, but my favourite was always a beaten up old Metcal that I am not sure how old it was. I just recently went out and bought a brand new Metcal MX-500 series station with the talon tweezer style handpiece as well. It is worth a small fortune and then some, but with the right tips it makes touching up of boards, and even removing and replacing 0402 and 0201 components under the microscope a pretty simple task. Just don't laugh at the toaster oven, it actually does work - I have one myself - but I tend to use the hot-plate most often these days. John At 11:48 AM 7/10/2006, Ulrich Bangert wrote: >Hi Said, > > > Works great with frequency counters, power meters etc. Have > > not tried SRQ. > >Works great with a SINGLE instrument that talks from time to time. >Anything that is only a bit more complex needs different measures. > > > One other factoid: the SMD chips seem to be soldered by hand, > > my card had a > > lot of solder flux on it. > >If you want to read the absolute truth and nothing but the truth about >smd processing at SPARK FUN, go to: > >http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/ReflowToaster/reflow-hotplate.htm > >and be prepared to have a lot of fun. That's no joke! The boys are >really doin it this way! > >Regards >Ulrich > > > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- > > Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Gesendet: Sonntag, 9. Juli 2006 19:46 > > An: [email protected] > > Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Low Cost GP-IB PCI card? > > > > > > > > In a message dated 7/9/2006 04:56:51 Pacific Daylight Time, > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > writes: > > > > >>I found that USB-GPIB controller. Looks like BSD and Linux are > > >>supported. > > > > > > > > >> http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=549 > > > > > > > > > Hi, I bought one on Ebay, they work quite well. They used > > to be $99 > > > at > > > Sparkfun, now they raised the price, and it is out of stock... > > > > > Have you tried using SRQ or other features than simple > > > read/wait/write sequences with it? I found with one of the old > > > RS-232-to-GPIB converters that anything beyond reads and > > writes was > > > hard to handle. > > > > > John > > > > > > Hi John, > > I typically only use the basic (polled) features of the GPIB, > > sending > > commands manually to the unit (*RST, *IDN, etc etc), or what > > is even better I put > > the units into "TALK" mode, that way they spit out data > > without any need to > > poll. Then I simply use Win Hyperterm (yuk) to capture the > > data to a file, and > > analyze that later. > > > > Works great with frequency counters, power meters etc. Have > > not tried SRQ. > > > > One interesting aspect about this "Abdul" card is that it has > > a built-in > > GPIB connector that plugs into the instrument directly. It's > > a curse and a > > blessing: it hangs out of your instrument without any > > mechanical support etc, and > > extends your instrument length, but at the same time it saves > > you a >$50 GPIB > > cable. BTW: the card is now being sold on Ebay again. > > > > One other factoid: the SMD chips seem to be soldered by hand, > > my card had a > > lot of solder flux on it. It's best to clean this off with > > Flux remover > > (Acetone type etc) for long term reliability. > > > > bye, > > Said > > _______________________________________________ > > time-nuts mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://www.febo.com/cgi-> bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > > > > >_______________________________________________ >time-nuts mailing list >[email protected] >https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list [email protected] https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
