Re: gEDA-user: Free Dog meetings at MIT starting this September!

[Dan McMahill <dan@mcmahill.net>]

On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 01:14:09PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:
> On Aug 22, 2004, at 12:53 PM, Samuel A. Falvo II wrote:
> >>Where can I buy one piece of this one in Prague? I would be genuinely
> >>interested :)
> >
> >You may or may not be able to.  I don't know.  I know I can get them 
> >from
> >http://www.insight-electronics.com
> >
> >>It doesn't matter - you have to give up on thru-hole on modern CPU's
> >>anyway :)
> >
> >It does matter.  Through-hole parts are way easier for a complete
> >neophyte to solder.
> 
>   I must strongly disagree with this statement.  The notion that 
> through-hole soldering is easier than soldering surface-mount devices 
> is, and always has been, a myth.  Personally, any more, I *hate* 
> soldering through-hole parts.  Sure it takes a steadier hand due to the 
> finer pin spacings and such, but give me an SOIC over a DIP any day.
> 
>   Perhaps a part of the problem is that people want to be able to 
> solder with a cheap soldering iron they bought at Radio Shack for $12 
> that has a tip as big as their finger.  To that, I say "use crap tools, 
> get crap results".  With quality tools, good lighting, and a little bit 
> (maybe a few hours) of practice, I'm convinced that nearly anyone can 
> solder wide-pitch SMT with no problem.  Don't want to shell out a few 
> bucks for a quality temperature-controlled iron?  Don't try to solder.  
> It's as simple as that.
 
I've got to agree completely with Dave here.  Having soldered more than 
a couple of things together in technologies ranging from vacuum tube to
high pin count fine pitch chips over the last 23 years since my first soldering
iron, I find that about the easiest thing is a board with 1206 passives
and SOIC chips.  I'll grant you that things like QFN are a pain, but 
an SO16 isn't and 1206's are so much faster to work with than leaded
resistors and capacitors.  In fact, I almost always use surface mount
parts when building up a quick prototype on some proto-board material.

-Dan


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