----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 1:33
PM
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Soldering iron
for
IRDA chips
Ian,
I'll ask SWMBO tonight - she repairs satellite boxes for a
living and regularly replaces all sorts of weird and wonderful IC's
etc.
I have a bit of experience myself from a process engineering role with
Intel's
PC motherboard repair centre(funnily enough where I met SWMBO), but most of
the kit we used there unfortunately didn't fall into the less than £50
margin
you are looking at. Where she works now doesn't have he same sort of budget
so
I know she uses more down to earth equipment.
My experience was that most of the experienced rework techs
would use 'two' basic metcal irons simultaneously to remove allot of smt
components - these had interchangeable tips - that had preset temps(mostly
very fine) http://www.metcal.com/products/1.2.3.1.htm . An
alternative that was similar to what somebody else has mentioned was PACE
rework centres that used various 'tweezers' type irons with IC specific
tips,
but these were very expensive - and the folks on the floor didn't like or
use
them. http://www.paceusa.com/default.asp
She does these types of IC's very quickly, almost all of
the
pins down on side at once, but somehow not managing to cause any shorts,
running a flat tipped iron with quite a bit of solder on, then effectively
removing the excess and any shorts, but I presume you probably won't want
to
solder these onto anything other than a breadboard that won't have the pads
etc. Are the prototype boards with the correctly spaced pads etc still
available for these chips?
I've seen people using hot air as well, but keep a close
eye
on the temps - lots of damaged IC's and lifted / damaged pads and land on
PCB's with this method (it was officially banned form the floor - I kept it
locked up in case of an emergency.
Mail me directly if I can be of any help or if you want to
speak to SWMBO tonight - she may do a bit of a tutorial over the
phone.
BTW How's the IR project with anti feedback going these
days -
is it ready to go - know Mark had a few difficulties with the prototype
when
James came over?
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From:
Ian B
[mailto:Ian@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 15 January 2002 08:47
To:
Ukha_d
Subject: [ukha_d] Soldering iron for IRDA
chips
Does anyone out there have a recommendation for a specific
soldering iron
for these SSOP maxim chips recently
discussed. I have looked on RS but
nothing starts
until about 300 quid which is way too much. Maplin have a
temp controlled soldering station (BP53H) which is a little better
priced
but there is not enough detail to tell me if
it
will do the job.
Ideally someone will say iron X from Y or Z at about 50
quid
will do you
just nicely. Can anyone suggest such a
beast.
Thanks
Ian
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