Signalyst DSC1

[ppy]

Originally Posted by randytsuch

Wondering for guys who hand assembled the DSC2 cards

All DSC2 hand assembled.
I used solder paste and an inexpensive hot air gun from Aliexpress.
8586 SMD BGA Rework Solder Station Hot Air Blower Heat Gun Intelligent Detection And Cool Air Welding Soldering Iron Repair Tool-in Soldering Stations from Tools on AliExpress - 11.11_Double 11_Singles' Day

[randytsuch]

Originally Posted by ppy

All DSC2 hand assembled.
I used solder paste and an inexpensive hot air gun from Aliexpress.
8586 SMD BGA Rework Solder Station Hot Air Blower Heat Gun Intelligent Detection And Cool Air Welding Soldering Iron Repair Tool-in Soldering Stations from Tools on AliExpress - 11.11_Double 11_Singles' Day

Thanks for the link. Might be doing some 11/11 shopping

[gionag]

Originally Posted by randytsuch

Wondering for guys who hand assembled the DSC2 cards, did you use a solder iron, solder paste and a hot air gun, solder paste and a controlled oven, or some other means?

I don't have a hot air gun. I'm trying to get the parts for an oven, but that may take a while. Could use this as an excuse to get a hot air gun lol.

I was looking at the pwb, and while I'm pretty sure I can hand solder, not sure if I want to spend that much time soldering.
Seems like using solder paste will be faster, but never tried it.

mine and ones i made for others was prepped with a stencil(and solder paste) and then reflown in a pid controlled oven.

I still offer the "assembly" of the DSC2 as-a-service for who want to listen to this jewel but is not willing to equip properly for such a delicate job.

I still have PCB's left as well as a suspected-original NXP shift register ( ).

btw... is an amazing device. i can't really listen to anything else. Not sure about the reclock/isolation section... as i have never listed to the 2.5.2 nor the 2.6.2... but i guess they are great as well as the "2".

[koldby]

Originally Posted by randytsuch

Wondering for guys who hand assembled the DSC2 cards, did you use a solder iron, solder paste and a hot air gun, solder paste and a controlled oven, or some other means?

I don't have a hot air gun. I'm trying to get the parts for an oven, but that may take a while. Could use this as an excuse to get a hot air gun lol.

I was looking at the pwb, and while I'm pretty sure I can hand solder, not sure if I want to spend that much time soldering.
Seems like using solder paste will be faster, but never tried it.

Well for my DCS2, I partly did the job with solder paste and hot air and hand solder. I am a absolute novice (and an old shaky guy) dealing with solder paste and hot air gun, so I had to do a lot of error correcting on the assembled board after finishing it. I have a lot of experience in trouble shooting and measuring, so I was able to correct all of the solder defects I made, but it is not an easy job, if you have limited experience in soldering SMD or have limited experience in trouble shooting circuits.

[koldby]

By the way, PPY is right on saying , that it is easy to find errors in the output by measuring the AC on each of the resistors at the outputs from the shift registers. I found a couple of bad solder joints that way.

[ppy]

Another DC problem may be a damaged TS5A3167DBVR key. They are very sensitive to static electricity. If you often changed transformers, then this IC could break through. There were two cases where replacing these chips solved the DC problem.

[nautibuoy]

I'm fortunate in having a friend with a reflow oven and he does an excellent job for me with more complex smd boards. I have also done some assembly with a hot air rework station.

With both an oven and a hot air station using a stencil to apply the solder paste facilitates a much better job and should avoid having to do remedial work because of solder bridges and the like. You can get reasonably priced solder stencils from PCB fabricators like JLCPCB.

[koldby]

Originally Posted by nautibuoy

I'm fortunate in having a friend with a reflow oven and he does an excellent job for me with more complex smd boards. I have also done some assembly with a hot air rework station.

With both an oven and a hot air station using a stencil to apply the solder paste facilitates a much better job and should avoid having to do remedial work because of solder bridges and the like. You can get reasonably priced solder stencils from PCB fabricators like JLCPCB.

I agree, with a board like the DCS2 with so many smd components, it will be the best solution to go the stencil and oven way. A lot of trails and tribulations will be avoided then.

[sebbyp]

I would be interested in buying an assembled DSC2, if anyone has one for sell

[randytsuch]

Thanks for the advice guys
I've done a fair amount of surface mount work, been able to solder some fine pitch ic's without bridges or other problems.
Most of the parts on the dsc2 don't look bad, its just there are a lot of them and really close together in some places.

I'm sure a stencil will help, but I think I going to cheap out and try it buy hand applying the paste. I watched a couple youtube videos and I think I can handle it. Maybe do the resistor boards first for "practice". Since this is a hobby, I can spend time on it but have a limited hobby budget.

The parts with the ground pads under the part would worry me, but I'm not planning to use them, will generate a really clean 5V using ultracaps instead.