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Hello All

Does anybody do surface mount repair and if so what station would you recommend. I see there are a lot of sub $100 units that seem to be a copy of the Hakko stations on Ebay. Anybody had good/bad experiences with these?

Regards
Ian

There are plenty of choices out there. Years ago, I was NASA certified and we used PACE stations which were wonderful. But we are talking several thousand dollar stations. I currently have a Madell unit like this one (on the top in the link) and it works great.

http://www.madelltech.com/m3-10.html (http://www.madelltech.com/m3-10.html)

I got mine for about $250 as an open box from Madell.
IMO this is one area where you get what you pay for.

My extremely messy work area in my hobby room.

I have one of those $99 models off ebay and it works just fine.

I also have a $99 e-bay special...works great for what I need :3-. I also have a messy work bench in the hobby room. :208-

Do you use this tool at the bottom right hand corner, during or after your solder jobs? :97- :97-

Ron (r273)

I did that on purpose...Kinda like a where's Waldo. We all do it with the pictures

Could be alcohol :128- ...  could be iced tea without the ice. :129- ...  I just hope it's not warm, flat Coors Light. :40- :96-  :208-

Poppo, what scope do you have, and do you like it?
Is it fast enough to analyze the newer slots?

Stat :31-

It's a Instek GOS-620FG 20MHz (with a 1Mhz function gen built in).  I like it. I got a good deal on it on e-bay a while back. Some place had a bunch of NIB ones from some company that went out of business. I got it for $135.00 + $15 shipping.  :91-

http://emirates-hermes.com//files/products/GOS-620FG_sheet.pdf (http://emirates-hermes.com//files/products/GOS-620FG_sheet.pdf)

Not warm!!  Cold and tasty !! :222- :222- :222- :151- :151- :278- :278-

Where are the bubbles?  :37-     "Show me the bubbles!!"  :8-  :208- :208- :208-

Thanks. :3-

Is 20MHz fast enough for the S2000, iGames, Bluebirds, and even newer slots?

<ADD> I also noticed this spec:  "Max. Sweep Rate 0.2 s/div ~ 0.5s/div 3% 100ns/div (20ns and 50ns/div are uncalibrated)"

Sure. Rarely are you ever looking directly at the main clock signal, and rarely is everything else running at that speed. Plus 95% of the time with modern digital equipment you just need to verify if a signal is there or not. I do part time work on radio equipment (for drive-thu systems) and it works just fine for that too.

Awesome bench Poppo!  :89-
You have no idea what "messy" is until you've seen mine! lol :72-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmMNDOQ1MSo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmMNDOQ1MSo)

here you go !

I standardized on Pace systems for my workshop. I have 4 benches and 3 of 'em have Pace stations on them. The 4th is for working on monitors so it'll be fine with the cheapo Velleman soldering iron.

I also have one of the cheap Aoyue 852A hot air systems and really like it for pulling SMT components off the board. It works VERY VERY well for those pesky MuRata filters on the Namco System 11/12 and Classics boards that are nothing more than huge chunks of ceramic with big solder joints on each end and 8 tiny ones down each side.

I still use a hot iron to put SMT devices down and to do reflow work. I just like it much better and can do some VERY tiny pitch TSSOP style and QFP style chips with ease.

AHHH, Bubbles... :199- bubbles, :16-,  bubbles. :126-  Bubbles!!  :267- :267-

Thanks. I needed that. :222-



Channelmaniac, you lost me. :131- I'm not familiar with all of those components.

Thanks for the feedback all and keep your bench pics coming.

Source for Aoyue, etc (http://www.sra-solder.com./)

Me too. It just takes a little practice. I find the hot air is frustratingly slow for assembly work, and tends to blow smaller components out of place. Tip - get a flux pen, use liberally. Don't rely on the flux in the solder for SMT, since they use so little solder there isn't enough of it to do the job.

<edit> I was going to take a picture of my workbench, but I couldn't find it under the junk.

I would love to see a short video clip of how a multiple legged chip is removed from a circuit board.
I wonder what degree temperature the settings would be on the unit?

I still find it much easier to snips the legs off the chip device and remove each pin later from the board.
I would like to see the heat gun in action as to preserve the chip though.

I remove them by cutting off all the pins with a X-Acto knife and cleaning up the pads with solder wick. I have removed them with hot air, but with the nasty high temperature lead-free solder they use these days it's become extremely difficult to do that without damaging the board. Even for cleaning up, I generally apply liberal quantities of good old lead solder first, because the lead-free has no surface tension and won't wick and flow properly.

I agree that if the component is going in the trash, it's best to cut the legs first.

I've also stocked up on good old fashioned lead/tin solder. That lead free stuff is  :256-

Mark  There was a great video posted a couple of years ago, I think it was in Spanish.  The Guy made it look easy !!

What is a good hobby solder station to get?
Which is better pump or fan on the hot air?

I don't know but here's a cheapie Japanese combo unit that might work...
Has a digital temperature display too!
Don't ask Blueridge if it needs a Clear chip if an error code pops up though!   :72-



http://cgi.ebay.com/2IN1-SMD-SOLDERING-IRON-HOT-AIR-REWORK-SOLDER-STATION-/180696930083?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a12605723 (http://cgi.ebay.com/2IN1-SMD-SOLDERING-IRON-HOT-AIR-REWORK-SOLDER-STATION-/180696930083?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a12605723)

A lot depends on if you are doing surface mount or through-hole work. That is why I like the unit I have above, because it has an iron, a hot air tool, and a solder extractor. While solder wick will work in a pinch, nothing beats a quality vacuum solder extractor. And I don't mean those spring loaded POS ones like this.  :47-

And another one by the same dealer.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2IN1-SMD-HOT-AIR-REWORK-SOLDERING-IRON-STATION-5-TIPS-/180699659857?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a1289fe51 (http://cgi.ebay.com/2IN1-SMD-HOT-AIR-REWORK-SOLDERING-IRON-STATION-5-TIPS-/180699659857?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a1289fe51)

Ron (r273)

Yeah, I stocked up on the leaded solder....

I have over 20 pounds of it. :)

Fry's had 1/2lb spools on clearance for $1.90 a year or 2 ago and I bought a bunch there... then at the local Dallas "sidewalk sale" sale a few months ago I picked up over a 1/2 case of 1lb rolls for $5 each.

I should be set for years now!

WOW! That much solder?!?!
You better invest in an soldering fumes air filter thingy for healthy lungs there man!  :89-