Homebrew PCBs

inscrutable_gal wrote:
> hi, 
> can anyone tell me more about surface mounted devices?
> i have many falling off the pcb's at manual insertion and soldering.
> any suggestions?! 

If you are manually soldering SMD components via
a soldering iron and wire solder you will need
some means to hold down the component until you
are able to tack it in place.  Even then you will
need a fairly light touch.

One technique is to avoid direct iron contact
with the device pins and use a ball of solder on
a flat angled tip to brush the pin with the
molten solder ball.  In this case both pin and
copper pad must be well fluxed.  Some sort of
hold down is still needed to maintain lead to
pad registration as well as prevent surface
tension "tombstone" lifting of chip components.

-- 
uhmgawa@...        www.gnu.org