Building Electronics with Surface Mount Technology James Jefferson Jarvis KB0THN APRS World, LLC
Presentation Outline What is Surface Mount Technology? Why is it used? How do I do it? What do I need?
What is Surface Mount Technology? There are two type of components Through hole parts Use holes through circuit board that components are soldered in to Surface mount parts Soldered on top of circuit board
SMT Parts All kinds of parts are available in surface mount Integrated circuits Capacitors, resistors, inductors LEDs Connectors
Why is it used? SMT is smaller, faster, cheaper Most new and cool products are only available in surface mount packages Accelerometers smaller than your fingernail Computers on a chip Radios on a chip!
How do I do it? Watch the demonstration and learn
Recommended Soldering Iron Workable Quality Radio Shack 15 watt soldering iron Radio Shack P/N $9 Only one tip $1
Recommended Soldering Iron Good Quality Weller WLC100 Jameco P/N $49 ST1 1/16” conical tip $5
Recommended Soldering Iron Excellent Quality Weller WESD51 Digi-Key P/N WESD51-ND $160 ETS tip $5
Recommended Tools Xcelite 170M side cutters $6 Small needle nose pliers
Recommended Solder Kester No Clean Solder – 28 AWG (tiny) Digi-Key P/N KE1407-ND $18 This is a half pound of 0.015” diameter solder so it will last you a lifetime
Recommended Flux Kester #951 Low-Solids, No-Clean, Pen Digi-Key P/N KE1804-ND $3.70 Rosin, Mildly Activated flux is okay but will leave a big sticky mess on your board Liquid and aerosol flux remover can be used, but it is nasty If water soluble flux is used it *MUST* be washed off the board when done
Recommended Desoldering Braid Techspray Prowick Size #2 5’ long, 0.055” wide About $4
Recommended Vice Panavise Jr Digi-Key P/N 201PV-ND $24
Prototyping Boards Surfboards! Available from Digi-Key Specifications at
Where to buy this stuff Digi-Key, Thief River Falls, Minnesota DIGIKEY Jameco, Belmont, California Radio Shack Spark Fun Electronics
Try it yourself… After the meeting we can build a simple circuit board with surface mount parts It’s a $4 practice board … and if it works you get a free RS-232 TTL converter It has one 16 pin chip, five capacitors, and a connector