Hobby electronics info request
Anyone have recommendations for (leaded) electronics solder paste? Does it matter?
re: Hobby electronics info request
@starkatt We generally use wire solder, not paste, but I do know that 63/37 is generally superior to 60/40, and 62/36/2 (tin/lead/silver) is generally superior to both but more expensive due to the silver content
what type of flux you use is going to depend on the board
oh and you probably want to get boards with ENIG, not HASL, if you're going to be doing high-pin-count parts with paste; HASL isn't flat enough for a lot of LGA, BGA, or QFN parts to reliably get all their pins adhered
-F
re: Hobby electronics info request
@Felthry I'm definitely planning on avoiding BGA, aiming for like QFN density at the most.
As far as ENIG -- that'd be rad but there's good odds these will ultimately be DIY etched polyamide boards.
Which may be an adventure since I haven't done etching before 😅
re: Hobby electronics info request
@starkatt You may be limited in density unless you're able to get a very flat board finish with that process! We're not familiar with it. Bumps in the board can make it hard to solder parts in small-pitch surface mount packages.
-F
re: Hobby electronics info request
@starkatt (oh yeah and if you're trying to do BGA--which I strongly discourage, by the way, they're notoriously difficult to reflow even with proper equipment--you absolutely need to use lead-free solder paste if it's a lead-free BGA, and leaded if it's a leaded BGA. This restriction is not the case for other packages, just something to do with how the solder balls on a BGA package have to melt properly)
-F