anelok: Y-Box V2 first pictures

Werner Almesberger werner at almesberger.net
Fri Jan 31 04:06:52 EST 2014


Bas Wijnen wrote:
> Interesting.  I though for smd boards, it was required to use solder
> paste

Only if you're using a process involving some sort of reflow
oven. Some DIY projects use toaster ovens for this. I tried it
a few times but wasn't happy with the results.

> and a mask (to prevent the paste from going all over the board).

The mask is the "clean" way to do it, but some people even just
put little drops of solder paste on the pads before their DIY
board goes into the oven.

> How does this method work?

For most things, I just apply flux, place the component, then
solder it with an iron:

- for things like resistors, I put a tiny bit of solder on the tip
  of the iron, hold the component down with tweezers, then dab the
  solder on one the terminals.

- for things like QFN, I do pretty much the same but then do one
  or more rounds of applying flux and melting the solder again.
  This is to make sure I really solder all the contacts.

There were two exceptions: the crystal and the QFN center pad that
requires a ground connection. For these I used solder paste. Since
my hot air pump broke and I don't like hot air too much anyway, I
just used the soldering iron to melt the solder paste.

- Werner



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