[hpsdr] Type of kits forthcoming?...

[Leon Heller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher T. Day" <CTDay at lbl.gov>
To: <Thompson_Peter at emc.com>; <ecellison at comcast.net>; <hpsdr at hpsdr.org>
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: [hpsdr] Type of kits forthcoming?...


> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Since I quite like assembling kits, my personal preference would be for
> something like the RefLock II - the 0.5mm pitch ICs pre-mounted and the
> rest left for me to do. The Cyclone II on the Ozy defeated me with its
> floppy pins; the heat gun approach may work, but I was too chicken by
> then to try it. I managed the Max II and FX2, but I'll grant that they
> take a sharp eye.


I've just been experimenting with a small toaster oven I bought some months 
ago, soldering a Philips LPC2016 ARM chip (48 pin, 0.5 mm lead spacing) to 
one of my LPC2106 PCBs. I usually use drag soldering with a Metcal system 
with a mini-hoof cartridge for that sort of thing. I squeezed out a line of 
solder paste from the syringe across each row of pads and pressed the chip 
lightly into position, trying to get it centred. I then put it in the 
toaster oven, set it to maximum temperature (top and bottom elements on) and 
cooked it until I could see the solder flowing. I then turned off the oven 
and opened the door. About half the leads were properly soldered, the others 
had blobs of solder where I'd used too much paste. I cleaned up the blobs 
with desolder braid and it looks quite good: the chip seems to have been 
pulled into position by surface tension and all the solder joints look OK.

73, Leon 


 1153497767.0