Just an FYI. BatchPCB is going through some major changes. David Carne is now on the SFE team and has skillfully managed to re-write and re-automate the DRC bot. We now have better control over DRC so we should be able to iron out the DRC glitches as they hit. That said, the site with new DRC went live today so expect some problems over the weekend. We’ll work as hard as we can on Monday to service any problems. Please email issues to spark at sparkfun.com and we’ll get it all sorted out.
Good news. We are adding a 4-layer option! I believe the pricing is $10 setup (just like before) and $8 per square inch. It’s a really good deal in our humble opinion.
And and and - we’ve got plans for a plastic stencil option coming in a few weeks. Ideally you’d be able to add an extra layer (or two) - top paste (and bottom paste if you need it) and we would ship the stencil with the PCB. Very exciting.
sparky:
we’ve got plans for a plastic stencil option coming in a few weeks. Ideally you’d be able to add an extra layer (or two) - top paste (and bottom paste if you need it) and we would ship the stencil with the PCB. Very exciting.
Greetings,
Can someone help me understand what I need a plastic stencil for?
I’m not doing enough boards of the same style to justify the effort. Perhaps in the future.
What I have been doing recently is using more SMT parts in designs and so my SMT hand soldering is gaining in skill but loosing in keeping my interest!
I’m applying solder paste from a syringe to each pad, placing parts with tweezers, and using the Metcal iron to ‘covert’ them to shiny solder one at a time. So far it’s working.
Perhaps the stencil would control the amount of solder I’m depositing? This seems to be the uncontrolled variable. Too much and I have to make a second pass with solder wick for clean up.
The solder paste goes a long way (i.e. so little is needed for each correct solder connection). In fact, it goes well on hand tools, PCBs, my clothes, and this keyboard!
Anyone care to share soldering tips for those of us not yet ready for stencils?
When it comes to discrete SMD parts like resistors and caps, hand soldering becomes very tedious when you are dealing with multiple pieces smaller than an 805 package.
If you using a larger SMD chip like a TQFP, you can easily solder them with an iron by drag soldering. First I tape the part to the pads (esd safe tape!). Then I drag a blob of solder down one side and remove the tape. Then I drag solder the other 3 sides. To clean it up, I drag a piece of solderwick down each side which leaves perfect joints all the way around. First time I tried this it took me about 5 minutes to solder an 80 pin dsPIC with 0.5mm pitch. Now I can do it in less than a minute if I’m so inspired!
If you are doing anything more than just a few boards, a stencil and reflow is definitely the way to go. If you are just stuffing a couple of boards, a little practice with the iron and you will be surprised how quickly you can get things done.
sparky:
Good news. We are adding a 4-layer option! I believe the pricing is $10 setup (just like before) and $8 per square inch. It’s a really good deal in our humble opinion.
This is Awesome. Are there instructions available for what extra layers are needed in the gerbers, and what are the additional limitations (micro-via spacing, etc.)? What is the thickness of the 4-layer boards? Any chance on getting some 0.8mm-thickness double-sided options?
SMD boards are not that difficult. We solder everything by hand for protos. Even really small 0.5mm pitch stuff. Just takes practice. Stencils help a lot, but they are not manditory like many people believe. Now if you’re talking about production - they’re a must have. Saves tons of time. If you’re assembling more than about 5-10pcs, I would look into using the stencil/place/hot-plate method.
Any updates on the stencil option? It’s an AWESOME idea and I’m definitely going to use it. My boards have over a hundred pads each and the syringe method is getting old very fast!
Great video’s and now I know smd is not difficult. I’ve used their techniques and soldering a smd resistor or chips is easier than a normal resistor with leads.
One thing that often muddles me as a newbie is seeing a whole bunch of designs that I know I’ve scraped appear in the “Order History” bin on my Account History page, as well as other pages. Of course all of the designs were uploaded and passed the DRC bot guantlet, but for whatever reason on my end — updated schematic, whatever — they won’t be ordered for real.
It would be nice to be able to clean out the kruft.
I believe the pricing is $10 setup (just like before) and $8 per square inch. It’s a really good deal in our humble opinion.