now OT: Re:PCB tools for Linux (was Whenceforth the Ubuntu fanboyz now?)

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Feb 13, 2007 at 02:53:28PM -0500, tleslie wrote:
> Speaking of PCB,
> what is the finest pin pitch (or one can list pacakge)
> that one has been able to sucessfully place and solder on a PCB
> without resorting to a automated expensive sol'n but rather
> a tech that is hobbyist  based, i.e. soldering iron, oven, etc?
> 
> just interested in anyone experiences, as I would like to 
> build a PCB using a  Xilinx coolrunner CPLD   and maybe a FPGA
> and they have PLCC versions but they are WAY big,
> then they have ball versions and quad packs. with ultra fine pin
> pitches, and I would like to go really fine, but this seem like
> it would be trying to thread a needle with welding gloves on and
> looking through a stain-glass window whilst doing it, unless
> they make one hell of a fine soldering iron and a soldering application
> method for this fine work? I read somewhere about tin'ing plating and
> and a oven, not sure if that's a tale or not.

I have seen the hardware guys where I work put quad pack chips on by
hand.  BGA I don't think so, since if you get it wrong the chip is junk
and you start over with another one.  Now the quad pack chips are being
put on to boards with solder pads already in place using a heatgun to
heat the area to melt the solder pads and attach the chip.  Doing it on
a board not prepared for it would probably be a pain.

I think the pitch on the chips we use tend to be about 1.4mm.  I think
some chips may even be 1.0mm pitch, which starts to be a pain to fix if
you ahve to touch of the solder on a pin.  Better have something to
magnify with.

> I know one can ship this stuff out pretty economically but I am
> intetrested in a lot of home tooling around with many pcb's,
> so i am thinking of getting a home milling machine (modified roland)
> that can do .01" traces and spaces, and assuming it does a good job,
> then placement and soldering is my only worry.
> 
> Any real life experiences? mail me off list if like, I am interested in
> anyone experiences.

--
Len Sorensen
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists