ESP8266 Community Forum

jpe wrote:Got the boards. Waiting on the rest of the parts.
Then to figure out how to solder these things. Never did SMD devices before.

Any tips appreciated...

thx for the work.

sweet! I would use a solder iron to do the caps, the voltage regulator & the pins ... I would then use a smt rework station(hot air) with solder past to set the sop ... or do a search for "drag soldering" method to solder the sop package using an iron with a well tip. good luck ...

Flux pen and desoldering wick braid are the tools !
I've even soldered several QFP100 without issues.

jpe wrote:Got the boards. Waiting on the rest of the parts.
Then to figure out how to solder these things. Never did SMD devices before.

Any tips appreciated...

thx for the work.

An easy way:
- Position the SMD component in the right spot (you can use a toothpick with superglue to move it around if you want...) and solder 1 pin to the PCB. (Can be any pin) ensure the alignment is good and solder another pin so the device is fixed in place.
- Solder all pins using a generous blob of solder by dragging it over all the pins. Don't go too fast, since then you won't have a good junction. For this it helps not to use "no clean solder".
- Remove all excess solder using desoldering wick. It is very important that this is of good quality. (Not the cheap stuff from china!)
- Clean the part/PCB with alcohol pads afterwards to remove all excess solder flux.

Of course using a hot air rework station with solder paste works better ...