Hi Mike, I very much doubt you've killed both your chips An awful lot of radio kits have been home built (using Si570) with very few reported failures. http://www.wb5rvz.com/
Just checking, but you have tired OE high haven't you? cheers, ian > Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 09:04:21 -0500 > From: Michael Baker <[email protected]> > Subject: [time-nuts] Silicon Labs series of oscillators... > To: [email protected] > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" > > Hello, TimeNutters- > Silicon Labs > [1]http://www.silabs.com/products/clocksoscillators/pages/default.aspx > offers a large assortment of various types of oscillator > chips: XO, VCXO, programmable XO, clock generators, > clock distribution chips, Jitter Attenuators, Clock cleaners, > etc, etc.... > I have a need for a 110 MHz VCXO in a 1.8GHz to 7.5GHz > tracking generator I am building for my Tek 494 spectrum > analyzer. I bought a pair of Silicon Labs 110 MHz VCXO > chips for less than $25 for the pair from Cramer > Distributors. The Si595 VCXO chips are in an > "industry standard" 5mm X 7mm surface-mount package. > Yikes! I knew I was going to have trouble (for lack > of thru-hole leads) breadboarding this chip. However, > I managed (using a magnifier-loupe and a v-e-r-r-r-y > tiny soldering iron tip) to get some "legs" soldered > onto the surface-mount pads. Great... I inserted the > critter into the socket-strips of my breadboard, hooked > up the required 3.3vdc Vdd and ground and checked to > see what it's output looks like. > No joy. Drat. It has a set of complementary output > pins. One sits at around 50% of Vdd and the other is low. > When I pull the Output Enable pin high, the 50% output > pin goes low. The other (complementary) pin just stays > low. If I pull the Output Enable pin low, neither > output pin changes. > Drat. I must have destroyed the little critter during > the leg soldering process. These chips are supposed > to be pretty static from normal handling and-- here in > humid Flori-DUH, handling problems from static build-up > is almost a non-existent problem. Even so, I do all my > breadboarding on a 3-foot X 2-foot static-drain pad. > Sooooo.... I used the utmost care in soldering legs to > the second chip. The surface-mount pads are gold-plated > and it is super easy to just momentarily tap them with the > soldering iron tip and leave a very teensy blob of > solder on each one. Using pre-tinned gold-plated > legs stripped from some surplus 1/8 Watt resistors, I > fastened the legs on the chip with only the briefest > time of soldering-iron tip contact; less than one second, > I am guessing. > Same result with the second chip; the outputs appear to > be dead. > I guess this sad saga boils down to my question for the > Time-Nutters List: How do you deal with breadboarding > when it comes to parts that are ONLY available in > surface-mount configuration (and are just at the size > limit for hand soldering? > Thanks for any input on this! > Mike Baker > Micanopy, FL > ------------------------ > > References > > 1. http://www.silabs.com/products/clocksoscillators/pages/default.aspx _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
