Would you want to solder a TQFP IC?

[August Treubig]

It was just a thought

I may get a few to mount TI MSP430 stuff on, since all their bigger chips are TSSOP or QFP.

 

[tunedwolf]

Once you decide to go down the smd route with boards, a whole new world opens up to you possibility wise.
First thing I would build though, for home/small workshop would be a small reflow oven using one of the plenty of half decent designs kicking around the web using the small toaster type ovens as a chassis/cavity donor.

Given that surface tension of molten solder will generally straighten out slightly off centre/skewed parts etc (great for poor eyesight) will make a virtually perfect job of soldering smd parts without requiring the glue/tack processing and no blowing away with the hot air pencil either !

Should be cheap to build, maybe around £40-60 and take no more than a couple of hours. Also if you have a nice Pace rework station at work, you may be thinking I don't really need one....just think that the whole board can be done in one operation...

Commercially, loads of pcb houses now offer major component placement at a reasonable cost for quantity.

rgds

 

[aussiepoof]

Here is an excellent SMD tutorial from the nice guys at Sparkfun... note that a cheap electric skillet does a better job than the oven:

https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/present.php?p=Reflow Skillet

P.

 

[August Treubig]

Rework

Don't have a rework oven, but I do have this Aoyue 968 sitting here that I bought last month. Was affordable and makes a really nice soldering iron in addition to being able to heat up stuff to pull off and put on boards.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Well I'll keep the only surface mount parts the TQFP and the 3.3V regulator.

 

[whiz115]

come oooon you can do it!! (if you haven't done it already...)

if i can solder SSOP28 you can do it too with TQFP!

 

[Krumlink]

I would solder TQFP, all you need is thinner solder. I can be a great solderer when I try (3v0 looked at my Junebug after it kapooped, commented on teh soldering )

 

[donniedj]

I would solder TQFP in my sleep.

blueroomelectronics, I am surprised you have not fully converted to SMD by now. SOIC is very easy, QFP is just slightly less easy, but SSOP is not an easy task. Doable yes, but not for basic hobbyiest, which truly includes many who buy kits like the Junebug. Your boards can get smaller and pcb fab cost reduced!

You think being railroaded to a 64-pin TQFP package is bad, wait till you have no choice but to buy QFN packages and no DIPs for evaluation. No leads equates to no hobbyiest

 

[Krumlink]

I would solder TQFP in my sleep.

blueroomelectronics, I am surprised you have not fully converted to SMD by now. SOIC is very easy, QFP is just slightly less easy, but SSOP is not an easy task. Doable yes, but not for basic hobbyiest, which truly includes many who buy kits like the Junebug. Your boards can get smaller and pcb fab cost reduced!

You think being railroaded to a 64-pin TQFP package is bad, wait till you have no choice but to buy QFN packages and no DIPs for evaluation. No leads equates to no hobbyiest

I would willingly switch over to SMD and SOIC, its just that I cant prototype with them

 

[dknguyen]

I would willingly switch over to SMD and SOIC, its just that I cant prototype with them

Sure you can. Get SMD breadboards...you don't even need solder. Just tape ep down with Kapton tape or something lol.

I don't care what the IC is as long as it has pins on the edges, because after trying to figure out how to mount a BGA everything else is a piece of cake.

 

[bananasiong]

I have no problem with QFN now, but I don't like doing the layout because it's nightmare for the routing.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Well the board will be double sided, with vias

 

[AtomSoft]

It will be tuff for a noobi but i would still give it s try even tho QFN is a diff type of smd it seems simple enough as to make the copper on the board slightly longer so you can just pre-solder and heat up copper when chip is in place.

I want to do surface mount stuff so badly lol I would love t turn my rs23 converter into something tiny.

MAX232CWE+ is SOIC and 16 pins so i would most likely use that. and instead of a DB9 on board i would just get the cable and cut it and solder the 3 wires right into the board. So only non-smd would be the wire and a 2 pin header.

But once i get another junebug will experiment with the usb virtual com thing.

 

[petrv]

Hi Bill,
it should be ok to solder the SMD PIC. Does that mean that you dropped ENC28J60 from your design ? Another thought: Maybe better than to make a big kit make 2 smaller kits, a modular system. For example: maybe someone needs a PIC with Ethernet but not the relays .... That way the kit will be less specialized for a specific purpose.
Petr

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Hi Bill,
it should be ok to solder the SMD PIC. Does that mean that you dropped ENC28J60 from your design ? Another thought: Maybe better than to make a big kit make 2 smaller kits, a modular system. For example: maybe someone needs a PIC with Ethernet but not the relays .... That way the kit will be less specialized for a specific purpose.
Petr

The PIC18F67J60 combines the ENC28J60 with a 128K 18F series PIC. (no EEPROM built in though) It's also cheaper and a hair faster (41MHz) than the 18F4620 & ENC28J60 combo. Only catch is the TQFP.

And yes that's the new plan, two kits. A somewhat high skill level Ethernet kit that is a self contained device plus the Relay & I/O board. Sounds good to me. And it'll fit a breadboard to boot.

 

[futz]

Here's another **broken link removed** at Brian Dean's https://bdmicro.com site. That's where I bought that kit in the photo I posted.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I've started the schematic, you'll love it futz, almost all the I/O pins are brought out to the headers.

 

[futz]

you'll love it futz, almost all the I/O pins are brought out to the headers.

Groovy!

 

[theinfamousbob]

This comes up every once in a while; here's the most recent one I could find:
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/question-about-toasting-smt-components.36405/

Grab a toaster oven and jump on it!

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Something like this.
Is it normal to put the PIC on the underside? If so I might have space to mount an XBee as well.

• PIC18F67J60 128K with Ethernet
• Ethernet
• 25AA1024 EEPROM
• RS485 (software, not EUSART)
• 3.3V regulator
• XBee support with EUART and handshaking

**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**