Cheer up Ballpencil
Cheerup ballpencil, I am 67 y/o and still soldering SMD.
I wear +3 dioptree reading glasses.
The trick is support to the desk your hand doing the soldering. Fix the PCB and have PLENTY of light. Use magnifying glass to inpect for shorts between the legs.
That stereo microscope is nice, we used it electronmiscroscopy for preparing samples to go in. But it needs time to get used to it.
Cheerup ballpencil, I am 67 y/o and still soldering SMD.
I wear +3 dioptree reading glasses. The trick is support to the desk your hand doing the soldering. Fix the PCB and have PLENTY of light. Use magnifying glass to inpect for shorts between the legs.
That stereo microscope is nice, we used it electronmiscroscopy for preparing samples to go in. But it needs time to get used to it.
I had a stereo microscope on my desk at work for the past 15 years. It was invaluable for soldering the small stuff. However I can not afford a decent used scope like what I used at work for my DIY endeavors.
I got a cheap USB microscope from Amazon last year. It can put a 3 inch chunk of your PC board on my 32 inch TV screen which is fine, but I haven't been able to master looking up at the TV while soldering something down on the bench yet. I keep soldering my fingers!
When soldering chips with leads like QFP's and SOIC's I just slobber solder all over all the leads, making sure every lead got soldered. Then I crank up the zoom on the scope and fix all the shorts with solder wick.
The new leadless parts are a different story. Here a heat gun or a toaster oven is the only possibility for DIY. The pads are on the bottom of the part. You can't see them once the part is placed. You must put solder paste on the PCB pads then place the part in the solder paste and heat from above with the heat gun. You can carefully "bump" the PCB pads with a soldering iron and conventional solder. You must make sure the bumps are the same height. Then cover them all in paste flux. Place the chip on the bumps and "reflow" the solder with the heat gun.
Place the IC chips on the board first. Then take a DVM on the 1 megohm (or autorange) scale WITH A 100K or higher resistor in series and look for continuity between all the IC pins and B+ or Ground. There should be some reading on each pin. A bad solder connection will be a complete open, but a properly soldered pin should read something. The resistor limits the current to a value that won't fry a chip. Damage will result without it. Many modern chips operate from very low voltages internally and most meters have open circuit voltages in the 5 to 15 volt range.
If all leads don't show a reading, try measuring a new umnounted chip. I find that dental picks with heat shrink over them make good probes for SMD work. I have had to remove and redo a chip 2 or 3 times to get it right.
I would love to try a stereo microscope. Right now, I'm just using an Aven Mighty Vue magnifying lamp.
I made a DIY camera, mounted on an arm, connected to a small video monitor. It works great for inspection of SMD soldering (i.e. I use solder paste and a toaster oven), but I can't get the hang of using the TV monitor while working on the board (example: soldering touchup)... I lose the 3-Dimensional aspect looking at the TV screen.
I made a DIY camera, mounted on an arm, connected to a small video monitor. It works great for inspection of SMD soldering (i.e. I use solder paste and a toaster oven), but I can't get the hang of using the TV monitor while working on the board (example: soldering touchup)... I lose the 3-Dimensional aspect looking at the TV screen.
That's normal but how can you say that's good? OK, if it's normal it's good, is that your philosophy? A good philosophy I'd think, you don't protest too much. Well, I do protest. I don't like getting old. I want to live forever.
61, 55, 67, 57.. wow you guys are OLD. hahaha just kidding. i'm sure we are all young at heart. What matters most is our mental age, right?
Reading all of your responses made me think that i shouldn't be too worried. We have guys like QSerraTico_Tico pushing 70 and still soldering SMDs. Thank you all for the motivating words.
When it comes to staying healthy, at least I am very careful with what i eat. I'm following keto diet and it's working so far, lost nearly 10kg and now i'm under 80kg. It feels great although i could do with less friends asking me why i'm not eating my rice.
Reading all of your responses made me think that i shouldn't be too worried. We have guys like QSerraTico_Tico pushing 70 and still soldering SMDs. Thank you all for the motivating words.
When it comes to staying healthy, at least I am very careful with what i eat. I'm following keto diet and it's working so far, lost nearly 10kg and now i'm under 80kg. It feels great although i could do with less friends asking me why i'm not eating my rice.
more of interest is that he doesn't talk like a relic. (despite owning a pair of horn closets)
Oh don't worry, I have several pairs of glasses for close up work, a circular light on an arm with a magnifier to actually see what I just did.... it's not easy, but still worth it.
I might pull a Hemingway if one day I find myself marking my shoes 'L' and 'R'.
Woody Allen said, “I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying.
I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.”
I think the most frustrating part is..
When you go through the stage of being able to see movement even in a dark room, then slowly you start to struggle with small print writing on the back of bottles. And you think oh well..then you struggle with the back of CD cases.. Then the realisation you used to read it perfectly..then magazines...then you find you have been increasing the text size on the PC..
Then Wham you need glasses...but that's just the start<<then you find you need glasses to see number plates BUT you can't read the speedo when you wear them....so you need new ones for close work and distance...
Then you look at something you soldered years ago and can't even see the copper tracks......
Then the horror of realising the mind thinks the body can do what it used to do and you pull a muscle down the Gym...
So you stop soldering for a while and when you pick up the iron again you find you now shake..so you fight with it and regain your abilities again.
So you now realise the truth in the phrase "Use it or loose it"..
I think the transitional phase is the worst...when you realise its probably down hill from there I just "find it funny" and you realise your limitations have not changed but are now in constant flux. However there is a sort of solace in this you realise that there is great understanding in the phrase "if not now when?" You cannot put off what you want to do time is not on your side any more. However what seemed important when you were young is now not important and your goals in life change. ie where you wanted to go..what you want to do. Maybe even who you think you are!
Regards
M. Gregg
When you go through the stage of being able to see movement even in a dark room, then slowly you start to struggle with small print writing on the back of bottles. And you think oh well..then you struggle with the back of CD cases..
Then the realisation you used to read it perfectly..then magazines...then you find you have been increasing the text size on the PC..Then Wham you need glasses...but that's just the start<<then you find you need glasses to see number plates BUT you can't read the speedo when you wear them..
..so you need new ones for close work and distance...Then you look at something you soldered years ago and can't even see the copper tracks...
...Then the horror of realising the mind thinks the body can do what it used to do and you pull a muscle down the Gym...
So you stop soldering for a while and when you pick up the iron again you find you now shake..so you fight with it and regain your abilities again.
So you now realise the truth in the phrase "Use it or loose it"..
I think the transitional phase is the worst...when you realise its probably down hill from there I just "find it funny" and you realise your limitations have not changed but are now in constant flux. However there is a sort of solace in this you realise that there is great understanding in the phrase "if not now when?" You cannot put off what you want to do time is not on your side any more. However what seemed important when you were young is now not important and your goals in life change. ie where you wanted to go..what you want to do. Maybe even who you think you are!
Regards
M. Gregg
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For me, it's about filling the minuscule time gap that is our life with things we love as much as possible. Everybody has a hole in their chest and it takes something different for each of us to fill that hole. Some fill it with their kids, some with their wealth, some with their art and some by travelling.. For me right now, that hole can be filled with DIY projects and giving my time to my parents and wife. I'm glad that hole of mine doesn't ask too much from my bank account
It doesn't matter if our projects get discarded later. What matters is that at one time, they served well to make us happy.
I remember the time when i can hear the high frequency emitted by CRT TV sets when they're on. I can tell from the other room if a TV is on or off. Nowadays, i'm not sure if my ears are degrading or that LCD TVs don't emit the same HF, i just can't hear them anymore.
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