[sdiy] SMT vs. THrough Hole....

[phillip m gallo]

Peter,

Would depend on what you're making.  At work we prototype certain interfaces
at work with a gen. purpose "translator" board.  This board is mixed
thru-hold and smt.   All the passives are SMD and the 20 pin micro, VREG and
connectors are thru hole.  Small quantity (2-5 max) Proto implementations
are hand built by my tech and she can whip out several other these in an
hours time.  Some things are near impossible to hand solder (BGA packages
'fer instance).

75 is a heart break quantity because in So. Cal there are so many contract
assy's that providing you have the stencil and assy dwg's can run these in
the cracks of other product "runs".  Depending on how you value you hand
assemblers time it is alway "cheaper" in "real cost".

If your board is a hybrid thru-hole and SMT you could have contract assy
just do the SMT and you could arrange for the thru-hole as required.

regards,
p


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of Peter Grenader
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 5:25 PM
To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Subject: [sdiy] SMT vs. THrough Hole....


Can anyone share data which would indicate, on a SMALL QUANTITY
manufacturing cycle on a given product (let's say 75 of something within a
year period), that SMT would be either more reliable, less expensive and
more servicable over than  through hole product all things considered?

We're talking quantities that would not require the use of pick and place
automated assembly machines.

Looking at out of warranty service issues, repairability, troubleshooting,
cost of hand assembly vs. that of through hole manual assembly etc - it
would seem to me that if a manufacturer didn't have the luxury of automated
assembly and simply replacing a bad board with a good one, that
troubleshooting and repair would much more of an ordeal than if the circuit
was through hole.  I'm taking into consideration here the ease of id'ing
mislocated parts (via color codes), the relative ease of component
replacement, (especially with IC sockets), etc.

There is a gee-whiz factor, and yeah, there is something to be said about
that.  But at what cost does that come?

anyone?
anyone?

- Peter

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