[GreenKeys] Who's still looking at getting John Nagle's USB<->CL Board made ?

[Ralph Mowery]

I am maybe one of the younger ones on greenkeys at 67.  

 

About 2 years ago I decided to get with  the SMD as almost everything is going that way.  It did require me to spend about $ 300 .  Just under $ 200 went to a stereo microscope from Amscope.  Then around $ 60 for one of the inexpensive hot air rework stations from ebay that has a hot air wand and small soldering iron.  I doubt this would hold up for very heavy use, but ok for what little I do.  Then a few tweezers and fine solder and solder paste.  After looking on youtube  for some videos of the SMD soldering and practicing on old computer boards, I found it not too difficult.  For now I really would use SMD for small projects if someone has a PC board for them.  Everything is usually on just one side of the board.  A couple of years ago I did not feel this way, but the microscope and other tools made a believer out of me.

 

The biggest thing I ever did from just a schematic was an ST-6 from an article in Ham Radio magazine.  Most of the things I did was just one to 3 transistors or ICs, or years ago one to 3 tubes.  Much of my work was just repairing older ham gear.

 

It does seem that the through hole parts are getting more difficult to come by if they involve the ICs. 

Just as tubes are becoming more difficult to find and expensive  compared to what they were years ago.

 

De 
Ralph 

 

KU4PT

 

From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of drlegendre .
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2018 1:06 PM
To: Pete Lancashire
Cc: GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Who's still looking at getting John Nagle's USB<->CL Board made ?

 

Now beggars can't be choosers and all that, but I don't get why John elects to design these circuits with SMD parts, knowing that the primary user base will be a group of DIYer's.

 

Can you work with SMD parts? I can't. I mean to say, I might be capable to some degree, but sheesh - why?! Are the required parts simply not available in legacy form-factors or something?

 

Normally I'd be all over this, but the SMD requirement just takes all the wind from my sails. So what's the deal? For the record, I built one of his earlier designs (RS-232 -to- 120V / 60mA) on perfboard with some parts chassis mounted, and that all went just fine. 

 

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