Solder for Smd components
- Thread starter Joshhr
- Start date
bowanderror
Well-known member
Are you doing an entire SMD board in a hot air reflow oven or just soldering an FV-1 and the rest is through-hole?
For just soldering a few SMD parts on a through-hole board, regular leaded solder works fine. If you have a small enough tip, you can continue to solder each pin individually like you would with through hole parts. 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.
You'll probably still have to hold on to the IC until you've soldered one pin, but it's easy to hold in place with blue tack or tweezers. 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 bigger parts like the FV01.
If you are looking for solder to use in with a mostly SMD board in a reflow oven, solder paste with a stencil or a dispenser is ideal. Solder paste is small beads of solder in a flux matrix, which melt & reflow with application of hot air.
bowanderror
Well-known member
No, just use less if it's a larger diameter solder wire.
The size of your soldering iron tip is more important. If you have a larger tip, you'll probably have to go for the drag soldering method rather than soldering individual pins.
Kroars
Well-known member
I’d highly suggest using some flux especially when soldering SMD. It just helps the solder find its way to the legs and pads. Tremendously helpful. Just put some on the pcb where you’re soldering and then place the component on it. I’ve found this pen to be very useful in that regard.
MG Chemicals 835-PX2 Flux Pen Soldering, 2 x 10 mL, Amber https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077GVRMZ...abc_TSD1WHJ3APFGKMTDWXPX?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Thanks. I watched some YouTube videos and bought some flux pens.
