Surface Mount Components in Kits

[Mark Moss]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Barry A. Watzman <Watzman at IBM.NET>
>To: HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV <HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV>
>Date: Thursday, April 22, 1999 5:47 AM
>Subject: Re: Surface Mount Components in Kits
>

>
>The bigger problem is IC's, they CANNOT be dealt with without special
>soldering equipment.


    Not entirly true.  As part of my job, I reqularly replace surface  mount
IC's with a pencil-type soldering station.  Low-end versions, usable for
surface mount work, can be had for under $100 and last much longer than
Radio Shack or other cheap irons.  Only chips in which the leads are located
under the chip is hand soldering a problem.

>The question was asked "how could people repair circuits in equipment >with
surface mount components?"
>
>I didn't say that it couldn't be done, I said that it required >special
equipment - in the over $500 range [way over in most cases].

    See above remarks.

>I believe that you would find that any facility doing COMPONENT level
>repair of SMC [surface mount] equipment has such tools.

    The "special" tools are only used for large chips such as PLCC64
Microproscessors or similar.

>But an awful lot of service facilities these days do only board level
>repair, and do consider all circuit boards to be disposable and just >scrap
them [obviously, it depends on the value and cost of the board, >and what is
on it].

    True.

    The first surface mount device I built at home was done with a small
Radio Shack soldering iron, so it is definitly do-able.  Like anything else,
surface mount soldering takes practice.  Also, a small amount of liquid flux
is very helpful.

Mark Moss, KC8DEI

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