SMD DIY Kits

[ej_whyte]

What do people think about diy kits with surface mount parts? I'm talking minimum 0805 really, no fancy BGA etc. I won't say my opinion in a bid not to influence the answers, but I would like to gauge what everyone else thinks and whether they would be interested in kits with SMD parts or avoid them like the plague!

Cheers

 

[qmp audio]

I built several GIX-51x that where available here a while ago.  There were several surface mount parts.  It has been probably my only time soldering surface mount.  It was a piece of cake and I had no issues.

 

[rob_gould]

I have tackled SMD sections on a couple of small projects.  As you say, just 0805 components and chips.

It's not as difficult as people think it is.  It's hard to make the results look neat though (for me, at least!)

 

[JohnRoberts]

I shut down my Kit business back in the '80s so I may find it hard to muster enthusiasm for any kit business proposition.

I soldered SMD for years with old school conventional irons, so it can be done, but to do it right with smaller and smaller components you need to use hot air tools.

For the "sorta" DIY market I can imagine mixed technology where the really difficult SMD parts come pre-mounted and the DIYer finished the thru hole and point to point wiring.

JR

 

[Seeker]

My answer would be: yes if it could be soldered with a standard iron, or the and came per soldered.

I've done a few parts with a standard iron with a fine tip and it worked well... But They weren't the smallest of smd parts...

 

[Andy Peters]

What do people think about diy kits with surface mount parts? I'm talking minimum 0805 really, no fancy BGA etc.

SMD is very easy, and in many cases it's actually easier than through-hole. You don't need to bend the resistor leads to get the part to stay in place when you flip the board over to do the soldering.

Solderwick and flux are your friends.

 

[JohnRoberts]

What do people think about diy kits with surface mount parts? I'm talking minimum 0805 really, no fancy BGA etc.

SMD is very easy, and in many cases it's actually easier than through-hole. You don't need to bend the resistor leads to get the part to stay in place when you flip the board over to do the soldering.

Solderwick and flux are your friends.

Just don't drop a tiny SMD part in your carpet...  ;D ;D ;D..

I've literally blown small parts off the PC board with my hot air station... Solder paste might hold them in place, but I was doing rework so pad already had enough solder.

Fine pitch ICs can be a hassle for DIYs, not that easy without lots of practice.

What stopped me from getting away with my old thru hole tools (I'm cheap) was a component (Class D audio chip)  that had a solder connection on the bottom of the package.  Can't solder that from the top. 

JR

 

[G-Sun]

I've been contemplating the future of DIY,
and stuffing some boards with very standard parts can take a long time,
and I imagine it could be done far easier with smd premounted.
Like resistors, dip-sockets and diodes.
That's for anything that's not for customization (98% of those components)
Take the gssl as example.
Then bigger parts, custom parts, and more odd parts could be the diy.
Seems the way to go for me.

Soldering smd is not something I'm keen on.

 

[pucho812]

the more I do SMD repair the more it's less of a problem. I still get hung up on the 16 pin ic's though. Guess just need more practice. Like anything else though need to have the right tools. I would hate to have to hand solder an entire board that way would lose parts left and right so I am on the fence.

 

[okgb]

I have a hard enough time reading values of through hole parts

 

[joaquins]

I have a hard enough time reading values of through hole parts

I usually have no trouble with a phone app, the flashlight and magnifications gives good contrast and size to read them perfectly confortable. For very tiny SMD parts is a good idea to have a USB microscope, at least for visual inspection after soldering.

JS

 

[Andy Peters]

I have a hard enough time reading values of through hole parts

I usually have no trouble with a phone app, the flashlight and magnifications gives good contrast and size to read them perfectly confortable. For very tiny SMD parts is a good idea to have a USB microscope, at least for visual inspection after soldering.

Look in the usual places for a used stereoscope with lamp.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Coincidentally, this morning I put the broken control PCB out of my recently repaired Whirlpool dishwasher  on my bench just to satisfy my curiosity. The repair guy left the old board for me to throw away. The fault was that first one indicator (on) LED and then a few weeks later a second (wash finished) LED stopped working.

I traced out the PCB and it looked like the LEDs were multiplexed 4x4  directly from the microprocessor. To test the LEDs for infant failure, I had to unsolder them. I unsoldered one that was lighting and one that wasn't. Then I probed with my VOM on diode scale. Both LEDs lit dimply, while one was propelled across my bench by my probing the loose part. The LEDs were probably 0603 , it took me several minutes to find the flying LED on my bench. If it had landed on the floor, it would have been lost forever.  8)

JR