Re: [ATM] soldering SMPs

["Bob May" <rmay@nethere.com>]

Yep, that is what I ende up doing a lot.
Few pins or many pins?
  For few pins, just put some solder on one pad and attach the
part, like a cap or transistor, to the pad and align it.  I like
using  number five tweezers as they handle the small parts very
nicely with their very fine tips.  Keep the tips fairly square
and they work well.
For larger parts like ICs of twenty pins or so, the procedure is
generally the same with te power pin usually being the one used
for holding the part down with the first solder.
For many pin parts, the fun begins.  Start by tacking down one
corner and then the opposi8te corner.  Tilt the board a bit and
apply a fair bit of flux and just run the iron down the pins with
solder as needed to keep a small ball.  The amazing thing is that
when you do this right, the solder ball surface tension pulls the
bridges from one pin to the next and you end up with perfectly
soldered joints everywhere.
You so need to have a fine tip on a temperature controlled
soldering iron, don't even think that an uncontrolled temp iron
will maybe do the work as the need is to keep the temp up as you
go down the line of pins.
In addition, you want to havee some solder wick handy to pull off
excess solder as necessary.  Don't work thge ron around with the
wick but rather just let it do the wicking of the solder and
remove it and the iron when you are happy.,  Soldering flux of
the rosin variety is also a necessity here as you will need to
keep things clean when doing the actual soldering and you don't
want to spend a lot of time with the iron on the pins or they
will lift the pads whgen you move the iron about.  The adhesive
for the copper is only so good so don't stress it any more than
is necessary.
Also note that too much solder is almost as bad as not enough
solder.  Too much solder promotes bridges between pins and those
can be fery fine.  Flux tends to kee that from happening as it
tends to make the soldfer ball up due to surface tension ass the
solder is clean and won't stretch out to the next pin as readily.
Keep me informed if you havee any slight problems and I'll ghie
you specific things to do to eliminate those problems.  There are
many pitfalls with fine soldering so be careful.
Bob May
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