PHOBoS in SMD land

[robsol]

https://youtu.be/ai9z67YV4kk

30 minute video showing someone soldering smd.

[PHOBoS]

I decided to start on clouds today and after having cleaned up my desk I sat down with a cup of tea ready to start soldering.
As with Braids I started with the ARM processor (if I fuck that up it's game over) carefully checking the orientation
on the PCB and the board layout file. Well, apparently I didn't check carefully enough (you can already see where this
is going can't you). After succefully soldering 3 sides I noticed a dimple on the chip which is there to mark pin 1. On the
opposite side of this is a circular marking which I had used to orientate the chip so it was rotated 180 degrees.
Since I don't have a hot air station it all went downhill from there pretty quick, well actually it took some time.

I tried adding a lot of solder and keeping it all hot enough to desolder it but that didn't work. I used a piece of copper
wire bend in a square mounted instead of the tip in an old soldering iron but that didn't get hot enough. I also tried
folding desoldering braid around the chip but I couldn't get it to heat up enough either. Eventually I did get the
chip removed by putting it in a frying pan (I wonder if that would have worked if I tested it first) but the board
is damaged beyond repair. I have ordered a new one but it will take a bit to get here. Luckely I do have another chip
as Rings uses the same one. I will order a new one for that whenever I get to order parts for elements.

I also managed to fry my prayer machine yesterday while turning it into a module, cut my finger on a container of
cream cheese and just had to pull a component leg out of my foot. I am not having the best time of my life.

[blue hell]

yuck!

hope its not contagious

Ah 2 x 13 = 26 and friday +2 = sunday - no wonder

[Grumble]

Is a prayer machine what I think it is?

[PHOBoS]

a prayer/praying machine is similar to the more well known FM3 buddha machine. The module I made uses one that
came as a complete device with speaker and battery holder (you can hear it in Prayer Drone) and one that came
as a bare PCB with a COB. I fried the first one, but the other one still functions. I ordered a new one, hope it it'll be
the same so I can easily swap the PCB.


I was really looking forward to using I together with clouds

[Grumble]

Thanks for clearing that up, fun little thing

[PHOBoS]

I finished soldering Clouds friday night and after flashing everything seemed to function, at least I could step through different
modes indicated by the LEDs which is also how I knew the blend pot was working. However when I tried to use it there was
no sound coming out nor was it responding to an input signal. I spend most of yesterday trying to get it working. I reflowed some
solder joints that I wasn't 100% sure about and read some threads on muffwiggler. It was there that I found a post describing
the same problem as I had and apparently it was due to old incompatable firmware, the same I had used. I couldn't find the correct
files and didn't get far trying to compile them myself so I send a pm to the guy who posted about it and he was kind enough to send
me the right files last night. After using those Clouds came alive and now works as it should

I made a temporary cardboard panel for it as it will be a while before I get a proper one.

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PHOBoS in SMD land - Clouds 01.jpg
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[stringsthings]

Just found this thread. Nice work in getting your Braids and Clouds up and running! MI modules are quite challenging, IMO.

I also started doing SMD projects last year in a similar fashion. I wanted to build a Tides, so I bought a few practice board off ebay and some tools from Mouser.
On the first try, I borked the MCU soldering and couldn't find the shorts.
So, while starting the 2nd one more carefully, I ordered a relatively inexpensive hot air station from ebay. ( popular 858D model .. $30-$35 )
When that arrived, I was able to safely remove the chip without damaging the board or the chip. Re-installing the chip went much smoother.

Proper tools and lighting make all the difference, IMO. I also use a jeweler's loupe to inspect for problems.
I tend to use more flux than others. I bought some flux in a bottle and a dispenser bottle with a super-thin tip. For cleanup, I use flux remover and IPA.

If you're interested in more MI stuff, modular addict sells PCBs and panels (which don't cost a fortune ).

[PHOBoS]

I've ordered myself a cheap hotair gun after the fiasco from last time in case I have any more screw ups in the future.
I might use it for soldering chips too. I've seen some videos where solder paste was used and it does seem to work great.
Without a stencil it is probably not worth it to use for all the components though.

The flux I use comes in pen form and although the flux works great I think one of those needle bottles would be very useful.
The pen is probably designed to just add a bit of flux to pads, but as you noted yourself lots of flux does work very well
especially with the chips. When you push the tip of the pen more flux flows out and this usually works great but not always
and pushing the tip damages it quite quickly. The thicker gel like flux also looks very useful.

And yeah you're right about the tools, I could not solder it without a magnifier and some proper light. I also have a jewelers
loupe (15x) but it needs to be placed on the board to be useful and that starts to get tricky when more components are installed.
A digital camera with macro option works great though. I just make some photos and I can zoom in on the camera when I
preview them which has helped me to locate some small solder bridges.

I got the boards from Magpie Modular, seems to be slightly cheaper than modular addict. I do like that they use different names
though as the magpie boards have the official names on them which I think Oliver isn't too happy with. Not that I would ever sell
them as being original Mutable Instruments modules.

[PHOBoS]

I received the hot air gun and tested it on one of the practise boards. Desoldering takes longer than I expected but it does work which is good to know

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[PHOBoS]

I finished another member of the Mutable Instruments family: Rings.

I did mess up soldering the ARM processor as some pins got bend sidweways. I think this happened with
the desoldering braid. Of course it went wrong on the last side I soldered so it wasn't easy to take it off.
Instead I spend about 2 hours trying to fix it which involved soldering a wire to one of the pins. That's when
you find out how small these pins really are. I had no idea if it would work so I only soldered on the parts
that were necessary for flashing the processor first. Since that went without any problems I had a bit of hope
and I soldered on the other parts. There was no smoke on powerup, as a matter of fact it actually worked!

Today I finished the frontpanel which came out pretty nice so here it is.

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PHOBoS in SMD land - Rings 01.jpg
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[blue hell]