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Old 20th Jan 2019, 12:23 am   #6
FRANK.C
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roscommon, Ireland
Posts: 732
Default Re: Hedghog and soldering

Don't despair! After all, remember that the PCB was designed by a middle aged mad who isn't exactly hawk eyed so he could build it himself.

At first I too was apprehensive about soldering such tiny pins but it is not as bad as it first appears.
The method that Stephen has described is the way that I do it too. There is normally enough solder on the tinned pad to tack the corner pins on temporarily. Just apply flux and heat with the soldering iron.

Liquid flux, solder wick and a metal tweezers make SMD work much easier.
You will probably need some form of magnification to check that the pins are aligned to the pads on the PCB. At first I used a hand magnifier taped to my bench magnifier to gain enough magnification which worked quite well.

I mount the semiconductors first as they are the hardest particularly the video decoder and analogue switch. The rest of the components are relatively easy.

Frank
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