Eurorack DIY: Dispensing solder paste and reflow soldering
2024 ж. 22 Мам.
1 353 Рет қаралды
In this episode I will try out reflow soldering fro the first time on one of my prototype boards. I will use a syringe type of solder paste dispenser instead of using a solder paste stencil, just to see how well that works.
The FreeCAD design files (and STL files) can be found on my GitHub:
github.com/tkilla64/eurorack/...
You can find all of my designs on my GitHub:
github.com/tkilla64/eurorack
Some modules that I have designed myself are available in my Tindie shop:
www.tindie.com/stores/tkilla64/
Thank you for watching!
#eurorack #synthdiy
awesome, want this as well.
Cool, thanks for sharing the design files of the dispenser!
My pleasure, thanks for your comment!
Nice video, and what a skill progression on freecad !
Thanks a lot my friend. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yeah I'm slowly starting to get the grip of it - but sofar I'm only able to make simple shapes. I haven't opened Fusion360 in 6 months or something... 😄
Thank you! This is awesome you shared this now! I am moving to a new place Jan2 and will be setting up a workstation for building a small rack of FX mostly. I have a korg KP3 I need to fix too, uh maybe. I might have a lot to learn.
Wow! that sounds like a you have a lot to do - good luck with your projects!
I just use the dispenser that comes with the solder paste and it works great for me. I definitely don't have super strength or anything :) Maybe some pastes are more liquid than others? I have only found it a problem when the needle is left for a while and it gets blocked. It can fairly easily be cleaned though to resolve this. I place the solder paste with a microscope using a smaller needle (25 gauge) so that there is only a small amount in the centre of that pad (a bit more for the transistors, elec caps etc..). I generally use a low temp solder paste which works well eg..SOLDER PASTE, SN, BI, AG, 138DEG C, 15G SMDLTLFP By CHIP QUIK Using a stencil is much quicker, unfortunately I have found buying stencils on their own (when building diy modules where I bought the pcb/panel online) as quite expensive
I have tried a couple of smaller gauge needles (I have a bunch of those in different sizes since I used them for scalemodelling) but the smaller ones get clogged up. I will check out that solder paste from CHIP QUIK, thanks for the advice!
When it comes to solder paste I like to use SD-528 for most prototypes (as it reflows perfectly at 140-150C), the only problem is that adding a bit of lead results in dropping reflow temperature to 90C, which is really bad in some cases. For reflowing I usually use some old frying pan filled with sand (we've flat-rate gas for stove, so it's cheaper and way faster than electricity). (Maybe I'll finally build my reflow oven using that old mini that I got in my basement). Stencils are necessary when working with 0402 or 0201 components (I often need to do so due to dimension constraints from client) - it just makes your life easier and 7$ per stencil is not that much at all. Basing how your hand shakes - if you want it to shake less always keep your elbows on flat surface (aka. desk) and your arms crossed together (use secondary forearm as support for dominant hand's wrist) - it's way easier this way to do precise movements - that method is often used in small-scale painting of figurines. Also: never reflow parts with plastic, especially with lead-free high-temp. paste - it usually ends up melting them (it's better to use hot air or wave soldering technique for this).
I did realise that my hands where shaking LOL (had to go back and watch the video). Yes, I use that or a similar techninque for my second hobby; which is scale-modelling. The problem with shooting videos is that I can never have a good light and working conditions, so the ergonomics are far from ideal. Thank you for the suggestions and advices, I'm probably not the only one that will benefit from them here.
Nice dispensing tool! I have tried stencil and hot plate so far, but yet I find my manual pick and place a bit labor intensive anyway. Maybe the next step is to have a real pick and place machine 😊
Yeah, there are OpenPNP projects like the Pandaplacer A1; a really cool project. I make so few of my boards that manual PNP works fine for me (I think)
I've been using those 3d printed paste dispensers that have a big knuled screw for years now and was quite happy with them (never held anything professional in my hands to compare....) -I'm looking forward to test your design and see if it's an improovement for me!
Thanks, suggestions for improvements are always appreciated - but since you have access to the design-files maybe you will make the them yourself!
Thanks for another great video. I have been considering getting into the solder paste hot plate/oven methods and you may have convinced me. Can I ask which Andonstar scope you opted for?
I'm thinking of making design with more fine-pitched components and reflow soldering is one of the things that I need to teach myself. The microscope is an Andonstar AD407.
Thanks for sharing the designs. Can you share more about what solder paste and wires you use? Also that hot plate is interesting. Is it from AliExpress?
Thanks! Yes, the hotplate and solder paste that I'm using is from Aliexpress. The other stuff is from a local seller here in Sweden. The solder wire is Pb-free with 0.35mm thickness, which works great for SMT.