Congrats Parallax on the new packaging and "green" rating

geekything

Looks like the Parallax branded, RoHS parts are just about ready to ship.

This is very, very cool

-marc

Ken Gracey

Thanks Marc!

We worked hard on this project and it's paying off with satisfied customers.

Now we need to decide when to discontinue the leaded versions. Can't have then in Europe after July 2006, and none are permitted in California after January 2007.

Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.

geekything

Hi Ken:

I'm assuming that, unless you use leadfree solder, the RoHS parts are 100% interchangeable with the previous SX chips? There's been literally no changes to the die, either?

-marc

John R.

Therein lies the rub and the million dollar question. I haven't done enough research, but I have conflicting information on how far the interchangeability goes.

Pin for Pin function, and internal working wise, they (and other RoHS vs. non-RoHS) are interchangeable.

I have mixed results in determining if “standard” solder will work with RoHS compliant parts (obviously negating the RoHS compliance) and/or of RoHS solder will work with non-RoHS parts. I suspect the answer may depend on the specific part (and weather or not the specific solders will “wet” the leads/pins). This makes life difficult for hobbyists who wouldn’t mind going RoHS, but don’t have to, and may not know the status or specific characteristics of parts they have laying around.

Ken: While it’s not your job to educate the world, having some type of guide for hobbyists and small business people on how to work with and/or mix RoHS vs non-RoHS would make it much easier for us to “buy into” only having RoHS compliant parts available.

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John R.

8 + 8 = 10

SteveW

For what it's worth, I regularly hand-solder RoHS parts from various manufacturers, using tin-lead solder, without obvious problems. That's not to say that, 20 years down the line, there won't be some bizarre embrittlement that means that the components all fall off the boards, of course, but, so far, so good. I'm not alone in this, either.
What _does_ go wrong, is soldering old components using RoHS temperatures. It can really wreck some surface mount parts - inductors and tiny SC70 packaged transistors / ICs seem to be the worst. You also only get one go, on 0603 and 0402 passives, before they give up and the terminations fall off. This can't possibly bode well for reliability - just say no!
(And RoHS solder is, in general, more annoying, less flowy, less wetty than 'proper' solder, for hand built stuff. If you're pushing your luck already (0402 passives, 0.5mm pin pitch ICs), RoHS solder doesn't help - use lots of flux, and hope for the best)

Steve