Galileo surface mount parts arrived

General
1

DaveB (+)

The Galileo surface mount parts arrived. I'd like to make
preparations tonight before the business meeting to be able to do the
surface mount soldering next week.

The preparations tonight are to work in Eagle CAD, to see if we can
define the solder mask geometry on a "cream" layer, and then try to
laser-cut the solder mask stencil from a piece of 8.5"x11" overhead
clear transparency, and line up the supplies to be ready for next
week.

Jim

2

I’m not going to be around today. I have landlord + family obligations :frowning:
If I have time, I’ll try to get things together for you today, but no promises.
-D

3

Update - We were able to make a very nice solder mask. Thanks Jon,
Ian, Paul, and DaveM for the help and support. The laser worked
great.

We should be ready to reflow-solder the surface mount components on
these 6 to 9 boards next Tuesday Sept 13, backup next Wednesday.

Jim

4

OK! We have all components and a very nice solder mask.

Someone remind me, we do have solder paste at the HIVE? Where?

Jim

5

Yes, in the fridge in the dirty room, not sure if we have syringe tips for the solder paste

6

There are tons of tips with my solder paste dispenser in the electronics area.
DB

7

I'm thinking to be at the HIVE tomorrow (Sunday) after lunch to
experiment with the first few of the nine boards. Galileo will need
six good ones.

I've got some questions for the Yodas, before starting to hot plate
reflow solder these boards:

(1) Do you wipe on any flux or cleaning prep to the board's surface
mount pads before stenciling on the solder paste?

(2) If a solder paste stencil squeegie operation should miss locate
the solder blobs, how do you recommend cleaning the solder from the
board to start over?

(3) Is there a recommended cleaner to apply after soldering to remove
flux residue or such?

I know it is not healthy to get lead on your hands or ingest it and
plan to take reasonable precautions.

Jim

8

  1. Warm, soapy water. Make sure you give the boards time to dry and/or throw the heat gun on them on a low setting.

  2. Damp sponge? Cutip? Solder paste isn’t far from the consistency of snot.

  3. This depends on the solder paste. You can generally look this up on the manufacturer’s website. I’d hope it is water clean up. Some others require alcohols or ethers.

9

Went into the HIVE earlier this afternoon and did a trial run on board
1 of 9 and it looks like I got a good hot plate reflow solder job on
the first try. It was easy. I'll look to duplicate the process on
the other boards Tuesday night before/after the meeting.

Jim

10

I am really looking forward to watching this process :smiley:

11

I am too. I'd like to get some photos of it happening (at least, if I
can accomplish this without annoying the hell out of the people who
actually doing the work) and make a blog post about it. I think people
would find this process interesting, as many aren't aware of this use
of a laser cutter.

12

Hodapp, that's great. We can photo blog the process. It is very
photogenic, but on a small scale. If you can photograph the date on a
penny you're be there. If anyone can, you can!

Jim

13

Sounds great. I'll bring my camera gear today.
(Yeah, I can photograph the date on a penny, just not very quickly. I
still haven't bought a real macro lens.)

14

Hodapp - Your photos look great. Let me know if you want help to
document the process.

Jim

15

I will likely ask for your help in describing what the photos are
showing. Do you (or anyone else for that matter) have the image or the
Eagle files from which you cut the mask? That might be good to have
in there too.