That’s a good video. Fortunately, soldering a few resistors is not that hard. You need good tweezers and if your eyes aren’t what they used to be, magnifying goggles. You can apply solder to one pad first. Then hold part with tweezer and place on pad while heating it with iron tip. Then take tweezer and press down on part while reheating solder to make it sit flush. The solder other end. I find that solder paste works quite well with an iron if you don’t want to use a hot plate. It allows all solder to be applied before placement of parts. Just hold part down with tweezer while heating one end.
Look for SMT tutorial videos by Sparkfun. They are pretty good too.
Look for SMT tutorial videos by Sparkfun. They are pretty good too.
It could probably be made to work if you solder it to the TH pads SMT style. But agree, JP’s BOM has the wrong part. I will take a crack at soldering it with SMT pins onto TH pads.
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I’m glad the postal service in India seems to work well. Hope you build this - it’s an exceptional sounding preamp.
Yes, that process is something I've seen on other videos. I saw a good one on drag soldering somewhere before, it was the inspiration to try SMD.
There is just something about the one I posted that makes it all seem much less daunting, it's some kind of calming effect voodoo, plus he explains a lot of what I assume are good practices, something you don't always find (I call it "expertosis" = the expert forgets what it was like not to know what he knows).
I ordered (two) cheap eBay SMT practice kits ... it's just a board with a bag of probably reject or super-cheap parts. It was something like $6. I will tackle that first, and maybe that will be enough to carry on with actual important parts. I have pretty much everything used in that video (and two HAKKO irons), except for the hot air rework appliance, but hopefully I won't need it.
If I ever decide to start working with reflow, what kind of hot plate or toaster oven do you think I would need?
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I tried to make it work - it won't so don't try it.
Here is the correct part:
TE Connectivity Part No. 2178710-8
2178710-8 TE Connectivity | Mouser
I need to update the BOM spreadsheet on post 1 with the attached file.
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You are welcome! But I have to say, packing 30+ boards and printing international labels with customs declarations is no fun.
I tested out the Aksa Lender pre with my VHEX+ amp by Vzaichenko today. It sounds excellent and gives reasonable volume control even with regular 30dB gain power amps. What's interesting is the improved noise/hum performance. I used to have a 1mV rms noise hum/hiss signal on the outputs with no music playing. Now when connected to the Aksa Lender pre (still same CD player source), the hum is gone! The output noise on the VHEX+ now measures 0.1mV and I can't hear any hum at all with ears pressed to the cone. So that was a fantastic result. The amp sounds even better now with this preamp driving it. Great dynamics and easy authority to power through complex passages and still sound clear. Bass from my sealed 8in RS225 woofers has great articulation and slam.
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