Hand Soldered SMD

[clinchfx]

I love your attitude

Thanks for sharing. My training was with an Australian Government department that was responsible for all telephone and radio communication in Australia, as well as operating transmitter sites for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. I was lucky to be selected for Radio Broadcast and Communications training instead of having to mess with telephones. They taught us basic theory, then tubes and then solid state.

Training quality was excellent, but hanging around broadcast or communication facilities waiting for something to go wrong was supremely boring. Practical jokes were common. Some of the technicians on broadcast stations rebuilt cars, ran TV and stereo repair businesses etc. while "at work" One Transmitter site was close to a quarter mile of straight road, so lunch time drag racing was a regular thing. I had one of the first rotary Mazdas

BTW, in spite of my age, I am at least as good as Mandy with SMD, except I have to wear a magnifier.

[culturejam]

And on the topic of SMD, I just got a new fun bit test gear: SMD tweezers for my DMM.

smd_leads.jpg (44.22 KiB) Viewed 23905 times

[DeanM]

That looks class!

[RnFR]

Hakko have similar tips available.



It's no longer necessary to file your own. Maybe you started something

I may have already posted here (yeah, I'm getting older and don't always remember ) that I had a Metcal tweezer iron available where I worked 2003-2006. It was great for removing components, but not brilliant for soldering new parts in place.

It must have been interesting working at JPL.

That's a sexy tip (who but an electronics nerd would think that). I've been thinking about maybe doing some SMD builds.
And I may have already mentioned my working at JPL here before (I am up there in the years myself). I know I did on TGP (I told Donner I thought his and Bjorn's builds had piss poor quality. A few people jumped down my throat for that But I never insulted the audio quality).

Working at JPL was VERY cool.
During my schooling and certification classes (you had to pass cert or they "let you go"), we had one to one and a half hour lunches. I would hang out in the observation room of Mission Control. That was cool. Mostly 10 foot screen (they were huge anyway). Walter Koenig gave a speech there. JPL had done some graphic work for the then new Star Trek movie (forget which one).
I got a bunch of cool pictures from PR.
I lost $120+ one day during lunch (A bunch of us would play blackjack during lunch).
I got started in that field by taking a 6 week course at an occupational center. The instructor was also a tech at JPL. I followed in his footsteps 7 years later. I went back after getting hired at JPL (via an employment agency) He smiled.

I could go on and on about that place. I consider it the pinnacle of my work in electronics.
And I think I use far to many parentheses

thats awesome! you got any Jack Parsons stories? (well, you'd have to be pretty old for that! )

[CodeMonk]

Hakko have similar tips available.



It's no longer necessary to file your own. Maybe you started something

I may have already posted here (yeah, I'm getting older and don't always remember ) that I had a Metcal tweezer iron available where I worked 2003-2006. It was great for removing components, but not brilliant for soldering new parts in place.

It must have been interesting working at JPL.

That's a sexy tip (who but an electronics nerd would think that). I've been thinking about maybe doing some SMD builds.
And I may have already mentioned my working at JPL here before (I am up there in the years myself). I know I did on TGP (I told Donner I thought his and Bjorn's builds had piss poor quality. A few people jumped down my throat for that But I never insulted the audio quality).

Working at JPL was VERY cool.
During my schooling and certification classes (you had to pass cert or they "let you go"), we had one to one and a half hour lunches. I would hang out in the observation room of Mission Control. That was cool. Mostly 10 foot screen (they were huge anyway). Walter Koenig gave a speech there. JPL had done some graphic work for the then new Star Trek movie (forget which one).
I got a bunch of cool pictures from PR.
I lost $120+ one day during lunch (A bunch of us would play blackjack during lunch).
I got started in that field by taking a 6 week course at an occupational center. The instructor was also a tech at JPL. I followed in his footsteps 7 years later. I went back after getting hired at JPL (via an employment agency) He smiled.

I could go on and on about that place. I consider it the pinnacle of my work in electronics.
And I think I use far to many parentheses

thats awesome! you got any Jack Parsons stories? (well, you'd have to be pretty old for that! )

hehhee.
A bit before my time.
I still think about that place now and then.