Soldering SMT components? I just fried $30 worth of parts.....HELPPPPP!!!

Ravenkallen

I just burned up $30 worth of parts. I tried to solder two i2c F-RAM's to two separate soic to dip adapter boards. Needless to say my soldering skills were not up to the task and i destroyed both the boards and the memories. I did some searching on-line and i found out that the reason for my failure was not necessarily from my soldering skills, but rather the inadequacy of my iron. They say that you need a variable temperature adjustable iron. I found something on radio shack that is $80. Do i really need a expensive iron to solder those tiny little parts? I am just so frustrated, because i spent so much money for the F-RAM's and i destroyed them in less than 15 minutes. I guess i should probably try SMT soldering on cheaper parts, not $13 F-RAMs.· If i need a better iron, which one would you guys recommend? Also do you guys know of like any SMT starter kits? Like something that you could learn how to solder SMT without wasting to much money. OR perhaps, do you guys know of any good tutorials? Thanks for being some of the best people that a fellow geek could find!!!

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet

mctrivia

for surface mount soldering i would recomend buying a real of 10k 0603 resisters and some 0603 to dip addapters or some unpopulated boards with parts of that size. I sell 0603 and 0805 to dip addapters but WBA consulting has them all at the moment because of UPEW.

As for soldering irons you should have a temperature controlled soldering iron. The cheap ones are low power(15 to 30w) and use the low power to regulate there temp(heat disipated to the room). A good soldering iron will be much higher power and controlled by a computer. This allows the iron to always maintain the correct temperature to melt solder even when soldering different thicknesses of material which is especially important when the material is small.

As for what Iron. Depends on how much you will do. I spent $400 on a JBC AD2700 5 years ago and have never regreted it but I do a lot of small soldering. I have purchased a few cheap chinease made ones off ebay for under $100 and every one lasted me less then 6 months.

Once you do more soldering you will find a reflow oven(convention toaster oven and a timer works just as well) and solder paist becomes essential. you can do a lot more work in less time. Some components like BGA are impossible to solder by any method other then hot air.

As for kits. I can sell you 500 10k 0603 resisters, a bunch of boards to solder them to, and some very thin lead free solder for $20 shipping included. I would check ebay though I am sure there are kits out there that can ship for less.

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Lots of propeller based products in stock at affordable prices.

Forrest

There are some soldering tutorials here www.sparkfun.com/commerce/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=soldering&x=0&y=0&search_section=tutorials

Im my opinion, you don't need an expensive soldering iron to solder parts with leaded solder (63/37 or 60/40 Tin/lead). I've used a $8 Radio Shack 15 watt iron for years. However it does take practice - preferably with some very cheap components such as resistors. I'd recommend a 15 watt iron, a spool of leaded solder, solder paste and solder wick - all are available at Radio Shack.

Most importantly, avoid RoHS (lead-free) solder - it's much more difficult to solder than leaded solder. FYI there's no problem using leaded solder on RoHS components and RoHS boards (with the exception of Ball Grid Array components).

Leon

Metcal makes the best soldering equipment, we had a couple of their systems at Racal Comms when I worked there for reworking boards that had been wrongly assembled by another part of the group. I use a second-hand Metcal system that cost me £125 with a new handpiece and six new cartridges. Worth every penny! They often come up on Ebay - look for an STSS power unit and an MX-500 handpiece, and MX-500 cartridges.

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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM

Post Edited (Leon) : 7/3/2010 6:01:24 PM GMT

Unknown

Holly recommended this variable surface mount re-work soldering station and if they still have the coupon which you use at checkout, you can get a free multimeter assuming it is still good.

www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9752

www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/8883

Surface Mount Soldering 101:


When you use a cheap soldering iron, you are heating a cold joint with a hot tip. There isn't any feedback so the iron drops in temperature and it may be possible for a cheap iron to overheat because there isn't any feedback. The ones that have feedback try to compensate and heat the iron back up to where they should be. The Weller (Wad 101) are over $500 so if the one listed above actually lasts then it is a good soldering station. Two people on the forum have already bought the one I listed above and they say it works but they haven't owned it that long.

With all soldering irons, there are people who say the sensor isn't near the tip of the iron so you may not be getting a true temperature but something is better than nothing and they may be calibrated to take that into account but I don't know.

hover1

I have found the Radio Shack station to be good for the price.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3132686

You will have to check the store for availability though.

Extra tips can be bought here:

http://www.madelltech.com/Soldertips.html

Don't forget to use lots of resin! Get a Resin pen or Radio Shack sells Resin in a can and you can brush it on with a Q-Tip.

Jim

Ravenkallen said...
I just burned up $30 worth of parts. I tried to solder two i2c F-RAM's to two separate soic to dip adapter boards. Needless to say my soldering skills were not up to the task and i destroyed both the boards and the memories. I did some searching on-line and i found out that the reason for my failure was not necessarily from my soldering skills, but rather the inadequacy of my iron. They say that you need a variable temperature adjustable iron. I found something on radio shack that is $80. Do i really need a expensive iron to solder those tiny little parts? I am just so frustrated, because i spent so much money for the F-RAM's and i destroyed them in less than 15 minutes. I guess i should probably try SMT soldering on cheaper parts, not $13 F-RAMs. If i need a better iron, which one would you guys recommend? Also do you guys know of like any SMT starter kits? Like something that you could learn how to solder SMT without wasting to much money. OR perhaps, do you guys know of any good tutorials? Thanks for being some of the best people that a fellow geek could find!!!

[url=http://][/url][url=http://][/url][noparse][[/noparse]url]

T Chap

I don't believe a variable temp pencil is your issue. I have used every pencil to date maxed out at it's highest temp, never less The radio shack variable pencil you mention displays 830 F at max, I never pulled it below that. What will kill a part is the duration of time spent on it. If you are soldering an SMT IC with a pencil, you could pre-lay some solder on the pads with flux and always use fine gauge solder. Then, tack one corner down quickly, then hit the opposite corner. Find some tricks to hold the chip in place while you get one corner done. Then come back and get the others, but I am talking about 1-2 second durations, never more than that. If you place 'dab' of flux over the pins, the you can actually solder the pins indirectly with the flux transferring most of the heat required to melt the solder, and less chance of overheating the pins. Use some denatured alcohol to clean up the flux immediately before it dries on. I recently ordered the $100 circuit specialists air pencil which works great. When using a pencil, a fine tip is required, and you want to try to heat both the pin and pad simultaneously, sort of put the tip at the junction of the pin and pad so as to heat them up in sync.

Don't get too frustrated, you are simply paying your dues and experiencing the 'learning curve'. Everyone has paid their dues to get good at something, you are no exception. At some point, with SMT parts you need to find a source for a stencil. Nothing compares to stainless from high teck stencils but they are expensive. Mylar or similar are fine for low volume. Some leaded no clean paste from manncorp will do a great job with a Quisinart Exact Heat oven. Put in the parts, 3 minutes at 300F, 2 minutes at 450. Perfect every time.

Peter KG6LSE

I have a Edsyn Loner . its my main workhorse for SMT and THole . IMPO any iron with temp feedback is better then a non feedback iron .. Brands names are interchangable . they all make decent gear when you pay a Good price .

but it comes down to how easy can you get tips and heaters and the like .. My store stocks Edsyn so I Bought in to there stuff..

Mind Its also technique ..I have reflowd a SMT Mini USB connector On a RAZR phone with a Weller Gun . and a ton of flux ..

So its both sides . and Solder paist is SO worth it !!!

I have used xytonics too . therre Very well priced .. $140 buys you a whole lot of iron ..

Peter KG6LSE

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"Carpe Ducktum" "seize the tape!!"
peterthethinker.com/tesla/Venom/Venom.html
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
LOL

Post Edited (Peter KG6LSE) : 7/3/2010 7:55:25 PM GMT

hover1

And it's all in the technique, and flux. If you haven't had any experience with Through Hole soldering, SMT solder is not a good place to start. I have been soldering for 40 years, so SMT was not hard to get used to, just the addition of magnifiers to compensate for older eyes [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Jim

Ravenkallen

@Mctrivia....Thank you for the suggestion. Those resistors you mention must be tiny, even smaller than SOIC packages. I'm only now entering the fray of SMT components and those seem way to small


@forrest.... I actually read that tutorial AFTER i destroyed the components. It is very good and well documented.

@Todd Chapman..... Thanks for the suggestions. It is very hard to not get upset when you destroy something worth 30 dollars. Especially when you don't have a lot of spare cash.


@Hover1.... I am moderately good at through hole soldering. I have soldered together quite a few working circuits, plus wires and stuff like that. The iron i have works okay for that at least.


@Everyone.... The iron i am using only cost me like $20 and it is a 30 Watt. It is most likely insufficient to the task of SMT soldering, plus i need a new tip for it. I also am using the lead free rosin core solder. As stated above, i am kinda short on money right now( Aren't we all) so i was hoping i wouldn't need something that's going to be so expensive. But i will start saving, i guess. The radio shack one looks promising and the convenience of walking straight into the store and buying one is fantastic. Out of all the surface mount components, which type of package is the easiest to solder? SOIC? SSOP? TSSOP?

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet

mctrivia

Soic is essiest by hand. And one of the most common. Tssop are nice space savors and very easy with a stencil and reflow oven.

There is nothing wrong with lead free solder if you get good super thin stuff. Some of the new stuff requires not much more heat then 60/40. I only use lead free because I went ROHS compliant in 2009 to sell in Europe.

If you are going to get leded buy 63/37 it has no plastic state and is worth the extra expense over 60/40.

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Lots of propeller based products in stock at affordable prices.

Forrest

Ah - the problem is the leadfree solder. You can only use leadfree solder in a narrow temperature range and your inexpensive soldering iron is simply incapable of operating within this range. You have two choices - install a new tip and switch to leaded solder, or toss your iron in the trash and buy one of the temperature controlled irons previously mentioned.

Kevin Wood

I suggest saving up for a Weller WES51/WESD51 or the Edsyn mentioned over the Radio Shack product. You can find the WES51 online for slightly more than the RS unit, and it will be well worth it.

Also, if you want to learn SMT on somebody else's nickel, look for a part time job at a local electronic assembly company. You'll quickly learn how to not destroy parts. Or get fired.

If you do this, you'll need to put your time in before they'll even let you close to fin pitch stuff. But you will learn, and your soldering skills will improve greatly.

zoopydogsit

It's most likely practice that you need.

While I'd love a temperature controlled soldering station, I can't justify it for a hobby. I have a cheap 10W and a 30W iron. I use a cheap 10W iron from SMD stuff, I filed down the tip to make it extra pointy.·I use the 30W for soldering through hole stuff like regulators when you need more heat. I haven't had the failures you describe. When de-soldering (removing components, then you can sometimes (depending how much heat and how brutal you are) damage tracks on the board. But then again I use Lead/Tin solder not lead free (old school sorry).

In regards to general solder rules, you should remember that the components you solder are delicate. I was tought (many years ago, before SMD was used) to solder opposite corners, then let it cool (touch the IC case) then solder another two, and so on. And to never have the soldering iron on the pin of anything for any more than a second or so. This ensured that it didn't overheat (and melt the little gold wired bonding the pin to the substrate). I don't know if this is still required, and I've seen videos of people putting a lot more heat on a lot longer. However I still stick to this rule for all components, trying to keep them cool to reduce the likelihood of damage, and haven't had anywhere near the kind of damage you describe.

For practice (now you've killed some chips) try soldering Kaynar? (wire wrap) wire to the pins of the chips. It's great practice for getting it right. You can also desolder SMD stuff out of old (newer) electronics, PC mother boards and mobile phones are probably the best source of SMD.




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It's all a function of time.

Post Edited (zoopydogsit) : 7/4/2010 12:47:39 PM GMT

Leon

It's "Kynar" wire.

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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM

RDL2004

The way I do those 8 pin soic is with the "drag a blob of solder then remove excess with solder wick" method.

First tape or clamp the chip in place, it needs to be pushed down pretty hard and flat on the board, then tack down one or two pins at a corner and let everything cool down - all the way down, not just a few seconds.

Next, smear some flux on the pins on the opposite side from the tack down. Get a healthy blob of solder on the tip of the iron and quickly drag it up and down across those pins until all melts together - be quick only a couple of seconds.

Don't worry about bridging the pins with solder at this point, probably most all will. Let everything cool down again, then repeat on the other side.

Using a fresh end of solder wick, push it onto the pins with the tip of the iron until the solder melts and the excess is absorbed. Push in only one spot at a time, trim the end of the wick each time, let everything cool each time. It will probably take several applications on each side to get all the excess cleaned off.

Just remember, be quick with the heat and let everything cool all the way down between applications. It is the excessive heating that will kill the chips.

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- Rick

Kevin Wood

Rick, I would just tack down a pin, and then just solder the rest of the pins normally. Just solder every other pin or 2 to keep the heat down. It only take like a second or so to solder a well fluxed pin.

Ravenkallen

Huh, well i have not ever used flux for any of my soldering, perhaps that is the problem. Yeah, i kinda freaked out when i tried to solder the chip to the board and bridging occurred. I guess my next course of action is.... 1. Buy some more cheap SOIC to DIP adapter boards, some cheap chips and maybe some of the "flux" stuff. 2. get a new tip for my current iron. 3. try soldering again, this time with some more patience 4. save up for a better iron...

I guess i don't know as much about soldering as i thought i did.

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet

Leon

I use jelly flux for drag-soldering fine-pitch devices - it makes it very easy - and a flux pen for surface-mount Cs and Rs. The flux contained in the solder I use is no-clean, and not very active. The flux in the pen is also no-clean, but it seems more active than that in the solder, and the rubbing action when applying it to the pads seems to help.

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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM

HollyMinkowski

This will sound silly.
I have this conductive glue that I use when it's nearly
impossible to solder something.

I wonder if it would be possible to wipe some carefully
onto the pins of a sm chip and just glue the thing to a
circuit board? I know it's not a great idea as you could never
remove the thing...but I just wonder if it would work.

Tubular

Just in case nobody mentioned this already:- Schmartboards have thicker solder resist that makes it much easier
www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products_so&id=54

There should be no problem with a 30 watt iron with leaded solder. I use a 25 watt when on the road sometimes. Leaded solder with flux cores is what you want, plus some solder wick to mop up.

Don't give up Ravenkallen, you're almost there...

Post Edited (Tubular) : 7/5/2010 5:12:11 AM GMT

Peter KG6LSE

For solder I use multi-core 63/37 ..

It "Wets" like a Washington rain storm .. [noparse]:)[/noparse]


Just keep practing . It will help a ton .. I started at 7 .( I just today turned 24)

I took apart every old device I could find and some times I would desolder half of the board and re solder it and hope it worked .. I learned quickly how to control the heat to big and small components ..

I would practice on a old alarm clock radio or a small boom box at this point and then try to rework things like a SMT solderd TV remote or SMT kids toy ...

try makeing SOIC 555 flashers with 1/8 watt Resistors . or a SOIC Audio amp .. philmore LKG makes SMT frendly point to point PCBs that you can tinker with ..

Peter KG6LSE

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"Carpe Ducktum" "seize the tape!!"
peterthethinker.com/tesla/Venom/Venom.html
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
LOL

Post Edited (Peter KG6LSE) : 7/5/2010 5:37:45 AM GMT

RDL2004

Click the link at the top to watch a short video.

www.howardelectronics.com/jbc/dragsoldering.html


This was the result of my very first attempt:



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- Rick

mctrivia

sillt of that pcb designer not to put solder mask over the vias. a mistake I only made once because it is a pain when you get bridging between the vias.

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Lots of propeller based products in stock at affordable prices.

localroger

My 2 cents... you do not need an expensive soldering iron, but you do need a small one; the 15-watt iron from Radio Shack seems about perfect. You need leaded solder, as mentioned previously, AND YOU NEED FLUX. You also need solder wick to clean up the inevitable bridging.

I use the "paint the pins with flux, touch the solder to the iron, then touch the iron to the pins one at a time" method. There are videos online showing it. My first project was the mp3 decoder chip on Make magazine's Daisy kit, which is a fairly large and critical part, and while the result isn't beautiful it works.

Peter KG6LSE

this little honey is not to shabby ..

www.proskit.com/cgi-bin/proskit/SS-201E.html
EDIT: I too most of the time crank my iron to max or darn near close .

I use stations becasue of the way they hold tips ..
most stand alone irons have a flawd desgine ..

Its the way they thread the tip . I am no thermo engineer but I do know that heat is not good around threads
Esp when its cycled many times in its life..
Every "cheep " Iron with threaded tips sheered off while being replaced . I went trugh over 30 Irons by age 17 . so I got a weller WTCPT used .. and I still have it but I coud not get tips where I worked so I got a Edsyn .



The Better Irons and most stations use a Sleeve and a nut In the cold(er) section of the Iron as to prevent sheering /sezeing of the tip . and most who use this system of retention make there tips fit lose in the heater and use the sleeve to hold the tip tight . so this way tips dont get stuck in the iron

Xytroncs makes a 25W iron for ~~~$29 with this rear retenton system and it takes some of there HighEnd Tips too ..
www.xytronic-usa.com/258-200gx-200phg_index.htm

its the 200GX series .

Peter KG6LSE

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"Carpe Ducktum" "seize the tape!!"
peterthethinker.com/tesla/Venom/Venom.html
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
LOL

Post Edited (Peter KG6LSE) : 7/5/2010 3:43:36 PM GMT

HollyMinkowski

Yup, you need flux, flux and more flux.

And yards of solder wick.

Hot air is cool too.

And good ventilation is your friend.

zoopydogsit

For practice you may also consider buying scrap PCB's. Sparkfun often sells them in their Dings & Dents section. They don't appear to have any at the moment, though it wouldn't hurt to drop them an e-mail.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8477

And yes, for bridging, solder wick is your friend. I have different widths to suit what I'm doing.

For SMT soldering I'd certainly recommend investing in a big magnifying·glass. Electronic or hobby stores will usually sell on the bench ones which have an inbuilt light. Best to take a sample board/device that you plan to solder to check it out before purchasing. When I shopped for mine, I found a number of them had poor optics or the wrong focal point for what I was wanting to do. I spent $100 on mine, and I've found it to be a wonderful investment. Though you could just get a cheap hand held magnifying glass and fix it to a stand (take time to get it right, but cheaper on the pocket), and then just a desk lamp to light the object. When I need to look between the pins I use a cheap B/W CMOS home security camera with the focus cranked back, and LED to light the area·from the camera (avoids shadows) and display it on an old TV, it's not a bad way to inspect stuff (I needed to repair a cracked flex cable for an LCD display, naked eye couldn't do it, big magnifying glass was close but did not give the detail, the camera worked a treat!


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It's all a function of time.

Post Edited (zoopydogsit) : 7/5/2010 11:54:05 PM GMT

Ravenkallen

Thanks a ton for the help, guys(and girls). I will take in all of your suggestions and figure out what to do next. I just bought a new tip for my iron so that is one thing out of the way. Next i will order more SMT chips/ boards, but first i need a new prop plug. I couldn't believe my eyes when the pins sheared right off, so i tried to solder on some wires and then the metal pad CAME OFF. Parallax should make a sturdier prop plug, even if it costs more. I will not get to program Props for a couple days now....I am going to start having prop withdrawal syndrome, haha

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet

zoopydogsit

I don't have a prop-plug so I can't provide much guidance.

However in the past when I work with expensive DIP chips (ie. BS2P40, etc) I would put it in a socket and then mount that socket into whatever I was working on (ie. another socket in a board). This reduces the risk of damaging pins if you are planning on doing more than just a single insertion. Though it can increase intermittent connection failures, so you need to factor that into any troubleshooting. Again, you'd only do this where you plan multiple insertions (ie. a test bed where you plan to recover components).

For the prop-plug you may be able to take a similar approach, a sacraficial connector. Alternatively, for what it does, you should be able to mount it in a box and run a cable off it to a connector (you could do a socket (key it to stop it going around the wrong way) and then just place a set of jumper pins into it) to reduce damage from multiple insertions.

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It's all a function of time.

Ravenkallen

Well, the prop plug is kinda weird. It wasn't the pins that connect to the circuit that broke, it was the pins that connected to a header that sheared off. Parallax should make the thing less fragile.

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet