Has anyone soldered both small (J201) and large (FV-1) SMD’s?

[Dan M]

I’ve soldered four J201 successfully. But I’m hesitant to order a FV-1 instead of just waiting until PedalPCB can supply pre-soldered boards (a million years from now??).

The toughest step on the small parts was keeping it aligned until the first leg was done. Some of them were slightly crooked, but still on the other two pads, so it worked out.

Is the FV-1 easier because it’s easier to hold on to the bigger part? Or more difficult because there are more legs to align?

I want a Hydra delay before I’m too arthritic to play, or too deaf to hear, or too old to care.

 

[bowanderror]

You'll probably still have to hold on to the IC until you've soldered one pin, but it's easier to hold in place. You can also use Kapton tape (or other non-marring tape) to hold it in place while you solder the first pin, which is easier with the bigger part.

With larger SMD ICs, you can continue to solder each pin individually if you have a small enough tip, or you can try drag soldering, which uses the surface tension of the solder to prevent adjacent pins from shorting out. The keys to drag soldering are to flux the IC & pads beforehand, and (against all through-hole guidance) add solder to the tip rather than to the joint. You only need to add a small amount of solder to the tip before gently dragging the tip across an entire row of pads. Because SMD components are only on top of the board, that tips worth of solder should be more than enough to sufficiently wet the pin & pad.

 

[Robert]

To me the FV-1 is a little easier than smaller components... however, it's possible that we might have some FV-1 ICs in about a week.

 

[Dan M]

Thank you both for the replies.

I had not heard of drag soldering.

I probably have too many pedals anyway… so buying more boards and components doesn’t really make me any worse off than I am now…. so maybe I find a stand alone fv1 AND stay on the pedalpcb waitlist… yeah, that seems to have justified itself nicely.

Dan

 

[Robert]

I have better luck with drag soldering on smaller pitch ICs. For FV-1's I solder each pin individually.

 

[cooder]

I find FV 1 and ICs also easier to smd solder than jfets and resistors and that tiny stuff. I tack one leg down, you can still reflow to re align if needed, if it sits nicely tack opposite leg and then the rest. Plenty of flux is good to use I find.

 

[cooder]

To me the FV-1 is a little easier than smaller components... however, it's possible that we might have some FV-1 ICs in about a week.

Did you sell any internal organs for that?!?