> I don't know what kind of person would try to solder this by hand! It's a surface mount package. I wouldn't go near one without specialised equipment!
Its actually very easy to solder packages like this and you really don't need paste. Paste is faster and results in less eye strain if your doing a bunch of them, just use a stencil for the paste application (which you can get easily and cheaply online).
The biggest mistake most people make when trying to solder things is thinking they need to do 1 pin at a time. Unless your talking huge pins (DIP-8) you don't want to do this. It is actually worse for the chip going pin by pin, you end up heating it up more and for a longer time.
Instead apply flux to the board, position the chip then "tag" opposite corner pins with solder to hold the chip in place. From there add more flux to the pins and use very fine solder (this is key) + a fairly fat solder tip, like a 1/4" chisel, just drag it down the each side of the chip while applying enough solder to suck onto the pins. You can do the entire chip in about 60 seconds.
Chips that actually suck to hand solder are things like QFN, PLCC (with small pads), and anything with a center pad (especially if its a thermal connection to the ground plane). You can hand solder such packages but its a serious pain and really can only be done correctly with a hot plate and hot air station. Small parts suck also, 0402/0201 or smaller resistors or caps are not fun to do without without paste + reflow.
EDIT: I should add that land pattern makes a big difference too. High density land patterns are much more difficult to solder correctly without paste + hot air or reflow.
It's a QFP, not a BGA. Go get yourself a magnifying lamp, some solder braid, and some paste. It's really not that hard (unless you're soldering a lot).
Yep. Eminently hand solderable. Surface mount is self aligning, in that all you have to do is heat things up, apply the right amount of solder and the surface tension of the molten solder does the rest, making sure the solder goes in the right places. The key is that everything must be spotlessly clean, so the surface tension of the solder is not disturbed by contaminants.
In the absence of a hot air of infrared source, use a flat chisel tip about 3mm wide and fine solder to do a QFP.
Align the QFP on the pads. Alignment is crucial, since by not heating all pins at once you lose the self aligning of packages aspect of the surface mount process. Maybe tack diagonally opposite pins with a little solder, or lightly hold it in position. If you are right handed, have the iron in your right hand and solder in your left. Have one side of the QFP facing you. Start at the left hand corner and (if you are right handed), sweep from left to right, keeping the flat chisel in contact with the part of the pins, trailing across so it is in contact with the pads. Simultaneously feed the solder into the junction of the pins and iron with your left. It takes some practise to get the speed of the sweep and the rate of solder feed correct, so getting the correct temperature and amount of solder. Get it right and it takes a couple of seconds to solder one side of a QFP, with a single sweep. Turn the board 90 degrees and repeat for the other three sides.
If you get solder bridges, reheat, maybe using a little flux or removing some solder if there is two much. If things are clean and there isn't too much solder, surface tension will "magically" pull the solder from the bridge back onto the pins.
I've used the above technique down to 0.5mm pitch.
Yes! And toaster ovens work well. Get some high-temp red spray paint too, so that the hotplate/toaster oven is clearly marked and never ends up in a kitchen.
Don't even need a hotplate. Any soldering iron will a concave tip, lots of flux & a touch of solder. Takes 4 strokes/drags and some extra flux afterwards to remove bridges (usually the 1st 2 pins on each drag).
It's surprisingly easy and i've had no issues on up to tqfp144's.
It's not as hard as it looks. What I do is stick the chip in place with tape, then tack down pins on opposite corners, then remove the tape and just go at it like crazy, letting the pins bridge as they will. Once it's all done and there's solder everywhere, I go back over it with solder braid to suck up the excess. A magnifying glass is nice but you can totally just do it by hand. Just embrace the mess!
Comments
I don't know what kind of person would try to solder this by hand! It's a surface mount package. I wouldn't go near one without specialised equipment!
> I don't know what kind of person would try to solder this by hand! It's a surface mount package. I wouldn't go near one without specialised equipment!
Its actually very easy to solder packages like this and you really don't need paste. Paste is faster and results in less eye strain if your doing a bunch of them, just use a stencil for the paste application (which you can get easily and cheaply online).
The biggest mistake most people make when trying to solder things is thinking they need to do 1 pin at a time. Unless your talking huge pins (DIP-8) you don't want to do this. It is actually worse for the chip going pin by pin, you end up heating it up more and for a longer time.
Instead apply flux to the board, position the chip then "tag" opposite corner pins with solder to hold the chip in place. From there add more flux to the pins and use very fine solder (this is key) + a fairly fat solder tip, like a 1/4" chisel, just drag it down the each side of the chip while applying enough solder to suck onto the pins. You can do the entire chip in about 60 seconds.
Chips that actually suck to hand solder are things like QFN, PLCC (with small pads), and anything with a center pad (especially if its a thermal connection to the ground plane). You can hand solder such packages but its a serious pain and really can only be done correctly with a hot plate and hot air station. Small parts suck also, 0402/0201 or smaller resistors or caps are not fun to do without without paste + reflow.
EDIT: I should add that land pattern makes a big difference too. High density land patterns are much more difficult to solder correctly without paste + hot air or reflow.
It's actually pretty simple to hand solder a TQFP by drag soldering. The key is to use plenty of flux and have solder braid handy to take care of any bridges. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...
It's sort of a moot point with this Cortex A8 IC though, because the RAM it needs only exists in a BGA package.
It's a QFP, not a BGA. Go get yourself a magnifying lamp, some solder braid, and some paste. It's really not that hard (unless you're soldering a lot).
Yep. Eminently hand solderable. Surface mount is self aligning, in that all you have to do is heat things up, apply the right amount of solder and the surface tension of the molten solder does the rest, making sure the solder goes in the right places. The key is that everything must be spotlessly clean, so the surface tension of the solder is not disturbed by contaminants.
In the absence of a hot air of infrared source, use a flat chisel tip about 3mm wide and fine solder to do a QFP.
Align the QFP on the pads. Alignment is crucial, since by not heating all pins at once you lose the self aligning of packages aspect of the surface mount process. Maybe tack diagonally opposite pins with a little solder, or lightly hold it in position. If you are right handed, have the iron in your right hand and solder in your left. Have one side of the QFP facing you. Start at the left hand corner and (if you are right handed), sweep from left to right, keeping the flat chisel in contact with the part of the pins, trailing across so it is in contact with the pads. Simultaneously feed the solder into the junction of the pins and iron with your left. It takes some practise to get the speed of the sweep and the rate of solder feed correct, so getting the correct temperature and amount of solder. Get it right and it takes a couple of seconds to solder one side of a QFP, with a single sweep. Turn the board 90 degrees and repeat for the other three sides.
If you get solder bridges, reheat, maybe using a little flux or removing some solder if there is two much. If things are clean and there isn't too much solder, surface tension will "magically" pull the solder from the bridge back onto the pins.
I've used the above technique down to 0.5mm pitch.
I've done surface mount with a Radioshack soldering iron, solder, and some solder wick. It takes patience, but definitely doable.
(Side note: Essentially had to be able to solder surface mount packages to pass a class in college.)
It's definitely more hand-solderable than a ball-mount package. The latter one is basically impossible to solder using a tip.
way easier and quite cheap: just use a hotplate and solder paste ($30 hotplate, $5 solder paste)
Yes! And toaster ovens work well. Get some high-temp red spray paint too, so that the hotplate/toaster oven is clearly marked and never ends up in a kitchen.
Don't even need a hotplate. Any soldering iron will a concave tip, lots of flux & a touch of solder. Takes 4 strokes/drags and some extra flux afterwards to remove bridges (usually the 1st 2 pins on each drag).
It's surprisingly easy and i've had no issues on up to tqfp144's.
It's not as hard as it looks. What I do is stick the chip in place with tape, then tack down pins on opposite corners, then remove the tape and just go at it like crazy, letting the pins bridge as they will. Once it's all done and there's solder everywhere, I go back over it with solder braid to suck up the excess. A magnifying glass is nice but you can totally just do it by hand. Just embrace the mess!