Comments on: Arduino Uno SMD

By: dave w

dave w — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:35:18 +0000

I just did an all-the-way fine-pitch part (0.5mm MSSOP-10 package) – an Analog Devices AD5304 quad D-A converter – with the same “blob-and-wick” method I described earlier – it works just as well as with the 0.05″ stuff.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:43:08 +0000

I was going to buy an Arduino but the news of not being able to take the chip out and put another in is a reason the board should cost less and a reason I might stay away from it. I shouldn’t have to buy a $30 dollar board to replace a chip.

By: wayne mitzen

wayne mitzen — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:48:50 +0000

Be happy that Atmel didn’t kill everything but the 32UFBGA – a lot of companies are doing that.

But honestly, my wife hates thru hole. We do one board for a lockmart thing that has 850 thruhole parts – she hates it. She’s done 0402 and TSSOP stuff with nothing more than a Hakko 936 and a Waveroom mag. I have a Mantis ’cause I suck. But I too prefer SMD…

As to BGA’s, the one tech I work with makes it look easy. He prefers the cheap Chipmaster 2000 over the expensive Pace and similar for BGA rework. He used to fix cellphones; tiny little uBGA stuff with just a hand held hot air tool.

By: dave w

dave w — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 07:18:55 +0000

re: hand-soldering surface mount stuff: it’s not as hard as it looks… don’t
try to do it pin-by-pin, just get it really well lined up and tacked down on 2
sides, then get a bit of a blob of solder going on the end of your tip and run
it along each row of terminals – think of it as “wave-soldering with a
soldering iron”, and finish up with solder-wick to remove any excess, as if
trying to unsolder the device (it won’t really, it actually leaves just enough!)

I was skeptical myself, but I just tried it recently after someone told me it
worked, and it was like an “aha! this is possible!” moment – at least with
the .050in pitch “standard” SOIC’s. Next milestone will be the “fine pitch”
stuff – the 0.5mm and 0.65mm pitch high-density pinouts.

The really tiny leadless parts (with the pads on the underside of a little
square ceramic brick) might be interesting: it might be necessary to leave
a bit of an outward extension on the pad shape to enabling hand-soldering
those…

-dw

By: Rich

Rich — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:54:32 +0000

Like a previous poster….
What happened to the ethernet enabled arduino board?
Or how about a mega w/ethernet?
The ability to flash the program via ethernet is needed by many.

By: Matthias

Matthias — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:53:25 +0000

SMD soldering isnt all that terrifying. I picked up the skill last year and havent looked back. As stated above, flux is key and so is a little patience but I don’t think it’s all that big of a deal. AVRs are incredible little processors and I don’t think the people here calling for a processor swap understand what that would result in in the interim. Now if you guys want to make one with an xmega… That’s something I could get behind.

By: Zinahe

Zinahe — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 07:22:00 +0000

I hate the look of the SMD board. It’s intimidating and unwelcoming to new comers. The DIY’ness appeal is just NOT there anymore. I hate to say this, but it was not a wise decision taken by the Arduino team. No matter what the justifications are !

By: smeezekitty

smeezekitty — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:03:15 +0000

Please, If you use imposable surface mount, please use a socket.
I spent THREE hours and suffered a panic attack replacing a FTDI chip on a duemilanove because the regulator shorted and applied 10v to the 5v line.
If both chips are surface mount with twice as many pins, you are pretty much messed.

By: thelaw

thelaw — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:53:12 +0000

Keep the DIP package alive, we’re not robot. I think Arduino team kan negotiate with Atmel site to keep the DIP package available even with higher price due to production cost but that’s okay, many electronics hobbyst I think still prefer DIP package AVR for so many reason.

BTW, if SMD package cheaper why Arduino SMD still have the same price with DIP version? CMIIW, yes because the component price might be cheaper but the labour cost maybe higher lol.

By: rrc1962

rrc1962 — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:29:57 +0000

I just received on of these boards and there is a problem with it retaining the uploaded program after powering down.

If I use the USB for power, when powered down then back up the unit goes into it’s bootloader flashing mode and the program does not run. Nothing I do recovers it to an operational state other than reloading the sketch.

If I use external power (12V) it will retain the program sometimes but not all the time. When it does fail to boot properly, I can sometimes hold reset while powering up. This work sometimes, but not all the time. I wish I could be more specific, but there is no pattern here. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

There are others over on the SparkFun forum reporting the same problem.

This board came with the inventors kit from SparkFun. I’m going to request they exchange it for the DIP style board. I’m using this board for prototyping. I plan on using the Pro 5V from SparkFun in the final project and hoping since it uses surface mount technology, it does not exhibit the same issue.