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hitsware
Guru

Joined: 23/11/2012
Location: United States
Posts: 535

Posted: 06:37am 20 Apr 2014

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> the wonderful world of SMD.

Thank you for the encouragement,
but what's so "wonderful" with SMD ?
From many standpoints I'm sure, but
a pain in the a** for me. I can't
even figure out how to get the attenuator
resistors off the sound on the ColorMax

But Thanks .....

Grogster

Admin Group

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9308

Posted: 02:00pm 20 Apr 2014

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You will come to see the light in time....

(and no, I am not a Christian - just a chance combination of words!)

Basically, there is a greater range of parts - especially IC's - that are available in SMD packages, but NOT in throuh-hole packages. Microchip is one of the exceptions, as they produce just about all their stuff in multiple packages, including DIL - making the MicroMite very attractive, as no SMD soldering is needed.

A perfect example of where SMD comes into it's own, is the full-size MM. You can buy the PIC32 chip used in the two full-size MM computers in various SMD packages, but NOT in a DIL through-hole of any type, probably due to the number of pins on the CMM - a 100-pin DIL chip would not be practical.(there could also be physical die size issues with QFP vs DIL.) The B/W MM or the colour MM would not have ever come about, if not for the SMD chip at it's heart...

But I really DO encourage you to take a look at those EVBlog vids, as he is soldering up SMD with pin spacing as small as 0.5mm with a iron tip 3mm or so in size - something that would seem to be totally impossible.

I also urge you to consider one of those eBay practise kits - they are only five bucks - and you can practise away there without having to worry about not getting it right, and this will allow you to see(using the likes of the EVBlog vids), just how easy it really is, with the help of some flux.

Sorry for the long rant, but I really want to try to hammer home to you that SMD is NOT as hard as you might think. I write that, as I see in your posts, EXACTLY my frame of mind only a couple of years ago - I would not even touch SOIC with it's 1.27mm pin spacing. Nowadays, just about everything I design is SMD with only the bare minimum of through-hole parts - it's swung the other way, if you see what I mean!

Edited by Grogster 2014-04-22

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

brucepython

Regular Member

Joined: 19/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 64

Posted: 09:55pm 20 Apr 2014

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Quote arithmetic is a small and rather unimportant part of mathematics

While I'm not daring to enter into that argument, I can't resist passing on an anecdote told by legendary folksinger Peggy Seeger.

She was doing a gig at a Californian university back in the late 1950s. Students sat near the back of the hall, faculty staff sat closer to the stage more or less in order of seniority. Her warmup piece was based on a simple schooldays tables chanting song which she asked the audience to join in (as folkies, alas, are wont to do). Everyone was very enthusiastic but one old man in the front row was making a complete mess of it, no idea what to sing. After the gig she was invited to a faculty bar and he pushed his way past the others, apologising profusely for messing up her first song. "I'm very sorry if I upset you. I simply cannot do all that arithmetic stuff. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself: my name is Niels Bohr."

Peggy is now in her mid-seventies, still doing gigs and can still remember her tables.
Edited by brucepython 2014-04-22

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