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Building the mouse Logitech won't make

(samwilkinson.io)
450 points sammycdubs | 1 comments | 25 Aug 25 15:34 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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stn8188 ◴[25 Aug 25 16:06 UTC] No.45015355[source]▶
"Balking at the $50+ charge for turnkey assembly, I opted to take the financially responsible route and pay $200+ for a hot-air rework station to solder it myself."

Yeah, I feel this :)

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frankus ◴[25 Aug 25 16:40 UTC] No.45015764[source]▶
For just straight up assembly of one-sided SMT boards (i.e. not reclaiming components from a donor board), a $30 plug-in electric skillet and a solder paste stencil from the PCB manufacturer (or patience and a solder paste syringe) works far better than it has any right to. https://www.instructables.com/Simple-Skillet-Surface-mount-S...
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Aurornis ◴[25 Aug 25 16:49 UTC] No.45015867[source]▶
The hot air station is called a "rework station" because it's very helpful for rework, too.

Using a hot plate to reflow boards is fine if you already know everything is correct. Having a real hot air station is very important if you need to change any parts or even fix reflow problems.

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throw-qqqqq ◴[25 Aug 25 17:03 UTC] No.45016044[source]▶
I prefer a regular soldering iron for SMD. Below 0603 I tend to blow off unrelated components if I’m not very very careful!

So for me, a loupe/microscope and a fine SMD iron is the best option. I have some China-model that uses Hakko tips.

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junon ◴[25 Aug 25 19:11 UTC] No.45017725[source]▶
Kapton tape is your friend for hot air. It's cheap and you can get by with scissors.

Tape out anything that you're not reworking, use tweezers and push down the edges against the board to seal as best you can, and then flux it and blow.

It'll hold things in place and wick away the heat from anything you're not trying to rework. I went from a near 0% success rate to near 100% with it.

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throw-qqqqq ◴[25 Aug 25 20:27 UTC] No.45018590[source]▶
Wow, thanks for the tip! I never heard that one before.

I have a hot air station that I haven’t used much because I found it difficult to control. I will give it another try but with the Kapton!

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1. jdietrich ◴[25 Aug 25 20:58 UTC] No.45018929[source]▶
To protect larger areas, you can use aluminium foil. It's usually best to hold the hot air pencil at a right-angle to the board; if you angle it like a soldering iron, the excess heat all goes in one direction and you're much more likely to blow off small adjacent components.