So a while back, I won a free Bus Pirate 3.8 board. Last week, I finally got around to ordering all the components I needed from Mouser, and they arrived a couple of days ago.
I was planning to try to hand-solder everything, but now that I see with my own eyes just how small some of the components are, I'm wondering if I'm up to to the task. Should I go ahead and give it a try, or should I just hang onto everything until I have a chance to get an old toaster oven to convert for reflow?
If hand-soldering isn't near-impossible, any generic advice?
you need 3 things.
1. lots of flux
2. solder wick
3. magnification
I use jewelers loupe for magnification. They aren't that comfortable for long soldering sessions, but they are cheap to get. I did a BP 3.6 as I remember the most difficult part was the voltage regulators because the caps are very close on the layout. Think through the order of putting those on so that you will be able to get your iron into the places it needs to go, I did them in the wrong order
After that it really isn't so bad. If you need more encouragement, there are lots of videos on youtube of hand soldering surface mount components.
Okay, I guess I can give it a shot, when I have the time. I know I've seen loupes pretty cheap on Amazon. I did finally get some fine-pointed tips for my Weller soldering station (ST5, ST6, ST7). It might be a while before I get to it. Too many other things going on right now. :)
I know this thread is a couple of weeks old, but for what it is worth, I just finished my 3.8 hardware build. Soldered by hand using a 10x "watchmakers loupe" to see what I was doing. Use "no clean" or "water soluble" liquid flux to make life easy. Be sure you get the polarity of the LEDs right - little green lines on the right for the ones I got. If you bridge some pins, just add some flux, wipe your tip clean and start by just trying to draw the solder down the legs. Your tip will usually grab some solder off. If that doesn't work, use some copper wick, clean them pretty good and rework the legs.
It is a bad ass feeling to hand solder tiny stuff and see the board light up when you finally plug it in.
Good Luck with the build.
CapnRob