SMT Parts
Crystal, PIC, and voltage regulator on a laser printout of the HMLiberator(Click for full size image.)
The first batch of board-level parts for the HMLiberator came in today. It’s enough parts for three devices, with a few extra SMT parts thrown in just in case I drop them, sneeze, whatever.
That up above there is a laser printout of the latest board layout with the electronics filling a 37mm x 25mm area. I’m going to redo the pinout of the cables to make routing of traces more efficient, but that shouldn’t affect the other areas. Also, as you can see, the part footprints are good. So, barring any manufacturing problems, it should work out great.
I took some more macro photos (true macros) of other SMT parts received today, because I thought some people reading this might be interested to see them:
· Four size 1206 SMT .33μF 25V capacitors sitting on a dime. These are Mouser part 77-VJ12Y25V334K.
· One of the .33μF size 1206 capacitors sitting on the PCB printout.
· Surface mount parts in cut tape packaging.
My eyes ache and hands cramp just thinking about working with anything that small. Do you have a good lit mag glass?
Naw, I don’t really need one. I was able to place those just by nudging them into place with tweezers and bare eyes. I’ve found that soldering SMT ICs is pretty easy. We’ll see how it goes with the individual resistors and caps. Shouldn’t be too bad, though… I’ll likely just reflow both ends. Or maybe reflow one end then solder the other normally.
Just need to get the boards first. ;) Maybe by next weekend…
the secret is to pre-solder either hte pad or pin, then reflow once aligned. then finish off the rest of the pins.
also, the resistors will be hard especially if you went with 401s.
you will want to put a few labeled on some double stick tape. do this for each resistor value and do only one value at a time or else you will get confused if the wind blows too hard.
That’s how I’ve done the other SMT ICs I’ve hand-soldered, and it was really easy. Last night I was looking at Weller’s hot air offerings, but at $500 I’d need to be doing much more than this to make it worthwhile.
I’m probably going to just stick to doing one value at a time across however many boards I’m doing. There’s only three or four different values of caps and resistors, so this shouldn’t be difficult. Also, things are so close together that there is a distinct pattern I should place things in, I believe.
also, if you are feeling fancy-pantsed, posting your triumph to the![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
firmware_3l337