First SMD build and impressions. ADDED Photo

[billstein]

Not sure if I should have put this under build reports because it isn't a finished project. If it needs to be moved please move it to the correct location.

My first SMD build and here are my thoughts.

The board is Chromesphere's LPB1 kit.

1. These things are small. I mean really small. The first component I tried to solder on the board was a capacitor. It slipped out of the tweezers and took me forever to find and it was still on my bench top. At that point I thought SMD was of the devil and I was ready to quit. THEN I found the capacitor and carried on.

This same exact thing happened one more time with a resistor. Same emotionally devastating process. You know how it goes now. Whining. Blaming the prince of darkness. Coming to the conclusion you have to be insane to even try this. Finding the stupid component there on the desktop and carrying on.

2. These things will make you feel like you have absolutely no soldering skills. I felt like I had two left hands. (Lefties substitute two right hands). There is definitely a learning curve here. You can see the finished product below. It looks like my dog soldered this thing. Unfortunately I don't have a macro lens so the photo isn't as sharp as I'd like.

3. Amazingly it worked. Fired up first time. So, of course I'm going to try it again.  

To be honest this was no fun at all. From taking the components out of the package to soldering them on the board, to finding them when they dropped a foot away was difficult. BUT I also remember the first few thru-holes I did and they weren't any fun either. I expect this will have the same kind of dynamics. I'm sure it will get easier and I will begin to enjoy it more.

Plus, as we see so many parts becoming obsolete, this is probably a skill we need to pick up. Also, the benefits of being able to build boards of this size are nice. I just built a booster that fits on the back of a 16mm potentiometer! Maybe I'll put one in my guitar on a push-pull pot.

Anyway, my two cents. I thought it might be an interesting thread.

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The board on a 16mm pot

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[wolfingsworth]

Thanks for sharing Bill! I'm glad you gutted it out and finished. Who cares what the soldering looks like as long as it works and you learned something right? I have a beautiful SMD board from pickdropper that I'm trying to build the courage up to order the parts for. Maybe I should go with a beginner's kit from Paul... Can't wait to see the finished product!

[billstein]

Thanks for sharing Bill! I'm glad you gutted it out and finished. Who cares what the soldering looks like as long as it works and you learned something right? I have a beautiful SMD board from pickdropper that I'm trying to build the courage up to order the parts for. Maybe I should go with a beginner's kit from Paul... Can't wait to see the finished product!

I've got two SMD boards from Pickdropper. I think I'm going to go for it. Chromesphere's board is kind of like training wheels to build up some confidence.

[pickdropper]

Congrats Bill, you're off to a great start.

I will say that losing the occasional part is one of the downsides of SMT boards.  I don't lose too many 0603s, but I still flick 0402s out of my tweezers every now and again.

I always recommend buying extra caps and resistors.  Mainly because they are so cheap.  I don't even bother ordering resistors in less than 50-100 pieces anymore.  They cost about a penny a piece, so I just grab another if I lose one.

MLCC SMT ceramic caps are also VERY cheap.  Most of the ones I get are less than 10 cents a piece even up 1uF or more.  It is a bummer to lose one of the more pricey caps, but those are usually bigger and I don't think I've done that yet.

[hammerheadmusicman]

I have a big plastic mixing bowl and I get the components out over that. Also, when I can I'm thinking of getting a massive piece of white paper to work on. I imagine that would make it much easier to find tray components!

Good job on your first SMD build, It gets better, I promise! Or at least, less painful!

George