AVR-Chat

--- In AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com, Mike Payson <mike@...> wrote:

> ... interested in EzPCB ... offer to populate 0402
> resistors and capacitors for free ... asked support representative ... transcript of the live chat:

Thank you very much for going to this trouble and posting the results of your investigation.

I don't want to warp this thread off its topic, but if I correctly read between the lines that you don't like populating 0402 components, I have to agree with you.  Everything down to 0603 is fine, but with 0402 I have trouble getting the right amount of solder paste without a stencil (i.e. for prototypes).  As a result, about 10% of the parts "tombstone" (stand up on end) and I have to laboriously reposition them after reflow.

I have decided not to use 0402 parts.  Unless I omit the silkscreen marking of the ref. des., they don't really save that much space.  Also, I can get a trace under an 0603 part, which helps routing and can save vias so, again, I'm not convinced that an 0402 saves space.  If the customer requires 0402, of course, them I'm OK with that.

We should also be clear that the EzPCB offer applies only to "parts in stock".  It's not at all clear how to find out what that means.

Graham.