[Elecraft] Elecraft Support

[Bill Frantz]

Most excellent advice John. I haven't gone to the microscope 
yet, but a magnifier with a circular fluorescent is a standard 
feature on my bench as is a cheap over-the-eyeglasses magnifier.

I have a hot air rework station I got from Sparkfun which 
enabled me to remove the existing resistor on my K3 to install 
the KPod power mod. It is also great for shrink wrap tubing.

The difference between today and the old days is that then you 
got one component per package. Now you get many functions in one 
package. The new synth board for the K3 is a fine example. Darn 
few packages, but lots of function.

73 Bill AE6JV

On 1/9/17 at 6:08 PM, crustacean at brig-elec.com (John Pitz) wrote:

>Guys, don't let SMT parts intimidate you.  With a little practice it
>isn't difficult.  Especially if you know how to make a good solder joint
>on a through hole part  The hardest part is getting magnification.
>There are some very affordable stereo microscopes available, you will
>probably want 20x magnification.  On Amazon I have seen prices in the
>$137 range on a quick search.  I was able to convince my eye doctor to
>prescribe a pair of low vision aid glasses, not quite 20x, that work
>really well for the larger, 0603 and .5mm pitch 100 pin QFPs.  These
>things have coke bottle lenses and they put the soldering iron a few
>inches from my nose ;)  If you are into making your own circuits you
>will find that 0603 parts, as well as SOT23 work well on .1 pitch
>protoboard, if you are creative enough.
>
>Other helpful hints: Buy the finest diameter leaded solder you can find,
>no need to make your life any more difficult on this scale with lead
>free solder.
>Buy a flux pen.  Sometimes a little bit of extra flux will help.
>One advantage of SMT parts is they are VERY inexpensive, at least
>resistors and capacitors, and you can store an awful lot of them in a
>small space.
>
>Other resources are Schmartboards, these are used to adapt SMT ICs to .1
>lead pitch perfboard.  Sparkfun and Adafruit are great resources as well
>if you want to operate at a slightly higher level of abstraction then
>the base hardware level.
>
>If you ENJOY building it yourself, don't let small parts intimidate you.
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