Re: Rosetta progress report

[Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 21:11:05 -0500, Robert Green wrote:
> "Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:43dc080b.631981031@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> >"BruceR" <br@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> >news:29hCf.1334$Jg.881@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> >> Sounds terrific! My preference would be for a populated board as doing
>> >> the SMT soldering can be tricky for a lot of people (including me).
>> >
>> >And downright impossible for klutzes like me!
>>
>> Some enjoy DIY and some DON'T. ;)
>
> I just enjoy it on a different scale.
>
> The Winford breakout boards came today and they are sweet.  They're also
> just about the smallest size of electrostuff I feel comfortable with.  It
> should be a piece of cake to wire up an RS-232 line from the MUX to the PC.
> I got a DB25 and a DB9 and they'll both mount nicely in a small project box.
> Thanks again for the pointer.  It's exactly what my ham hands need to work
> with electronic gear.
>
>> Actually, it's not that tough to solder SMT by hand once you give it a try
>> but I'm sure the majority will prefer the partially assembled route.
>
> Isn't SMT work normally done by wave soldering?
>
>> There has been a delay. When I went to submit the board design last
>> night I learned the plant will be shut down for the next two weeks
>> to celebrate the Chinese New Year. I'll try to get the code
>> finished in the meantime.
>
> Woof!  It's the year of the dog, if anyone cares!

I've ordered 2 boards, got ZBasic & the IDE working under Wine (
expect that the ZLoad will also work) and I've got my nice new
smt iron waiting to be used. Now if I only had time! Grrr.

Anyway, SMT isn't too bad. My friend taught me that using the proper
solder paste goes a long way towards doing it right. While I can't do
the really fine stuff I can solder the JDEC (?) and SOIC quite
easily. And that was with the wrong size iron (too big).

--
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.linuxha.com/                         Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/               Backup site