22 Jun
2010
22 Jun
'10
9:20 a.m.
On 6/22/10 11:45 AM, Keith M wrote:
Yes, actually. I'll even help YOU with it if you want, even after you
choose to label my offer of assistance as "trying to look like a god".
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
It's really not the same as having someone show
you. There's a big
difference between being taught in-person in an interactive manner and
having some shaky low-res video one-way instruction on youtube.
How far are you from southwest Florida?
Yes, there's scads of advice. That's part of
the problem. Everyone
says something different, there's no consensus and this leads to
confusion and frustration for average joe.
Actually there's a pretty common consensus on procedures and tools.
As with anything else, there are outliers, and they can be difficult to
identify when one is getting started. That's frustrating, I'll grant.
I'm running into exactly that in something unrelated to this right now.
Since this BS was dumped in my lap originally, let me
respond. First, I
think your assumption that my (our?) reasons for not liking/not being
good at SMT stuff is simply a knee-jerk reaction is unfair. Since you
are Mr. helpful, instead of trying to inflame the situation, why not
simply ask what the issues are? Try posting some valuable links. Or
some encouraging remarks.
I've given (admittedly minor) assistance two people in private email
as a direct result of this thread. Others have posted URLs. If I go
post some, I'll have obtained them via Google, which anyone can do.
They're easy to find. Direct assistance, though, I give whenever possible.
No, we get, "BULLSHIT", "you don't
need expensive tools", "your eyesight
doesn't matter." and attacked. On one hand we hear "wrong tools", and
in the next we hear that almost any soldering iron will work.
I'm not attacking anyone, and I'm sorry if I came across that way. I
am frustrated by all this broken-record "SMT IS HARD!" stuff that people
spout for the wrong reasons. I think that frustration is what's talking
here, and for that, I apologize.
As A. Christoff Baumann pointed out, it's great
that you've found it
easy. Fantastic. I'm happy for you. For the rest of us mortals, these
things are hard --- and yes, I've tried and my experience wasn't great.
It was an 8-pin SOIC memory chip. I was soldering onto a surfboard. It
worked, actually the first time, but I found it pretty tricky and the
pitch was HUGE by any standard. When I look at these other chips with
tens of pins -> hundreds of pins, I'm intimidated. They are
ridiculously close together, and my soldering iron tip looks pretty big
next to it.
Your THROUGH-HOLE soldering iron tip, yes. That was the problem in
this case, or least part of it.
Here's an analogy. I want to build a wooden chair, and I think I can
do it because I have a saw and a knowledge of cutting stuff. My saw
happens to be a hacksaw, though, and my knowledge of cutting stuff comes
from having made a lot of birthday cakes, but a saw is
a saw, and
cutting is cutting, right? So I attempt it with the hacksaw, give up in
frustration, and go around complaining forever more that "woodworking is
hard".
Why not go find a proper saw and learn how to cut wood, or simply back
away from the project and say "I can't do that, I don't have (and won't
get) the proper tools"? "It's hard" is not the same as "I'm
not
equipped to do it". Going around saying the former dissuades others
from even trying.
I almost NEVER have a need to do SMT. So not only do
I not have a need
to practice --- the return on investment is low. Why spend so much time
practicing when there are clearly other better/faster/easier methods of
obtaining the same (or better) result? Especially when I need a result
every couple years?
Doesn't the same apply to through-hole soldering?
Many people who have already obtained a skill love to
claim that what
they do is "easy." It makes them look like gods in the eyes of the
uninitiated.
Ahh, I guess that's why I've taught about a dozen people how to
solder. Nice, thanks.
I've
had great success with SMT, so when I see people having trouble
with it, I try to help. When I see someone complaining about it, my
motivation is to ask them what they're seeing and offer advice.
Really? Was that your motivation this time?