> 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.
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!
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.