openrcforums

Ozzy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 29, 2018 4:49 am Because of your lack of experience.

Nope, not lack of experience. Because it was my decision. I prefer 10 times the chip quik stuff over the hot air station. Yes, chip quik is expensive, but it doesn't take longer than the hot air station if you know how to use it correctly
By the way, I do believe you still need the desoldering braid with the hot air station as you still need to remove the old solder and clean the pads

@Bob
Yes, the chip quik flux is just amazing. I have been trying to get hold of some, but it seems to be rare and very expensive, at least here in Europe. What a shame

João

Hi João,
Chip Quik - Flux at Amazon in the US: (https://www.amazon.com/ChipQuik-SMD-291 ... B00CM2A97S).
Some other US places to shop: (http://www.chipquik.com/store/index.php?cPath=300)
and (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3468)
and ebay: (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ch ... noapp=true).

EU locks up the markets and some are here too in the US.

Wooow, on amazon $99 to Germany.. No way

João

That is ridiculous, what is the problem with Germany ?

It's not a problem with Germany, The US seller charges that price to ship it to Europe probably.. Some people don't look at the shipping price before they hit the "Buy" button. The internet is a very dangerous place

João

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

But on Amazone you can find a cheaper one. Though I dont know the shipping cost.
https://www.amazon.com/ChipQuik-SMD1-Le ... S53HMJTQRK

Reinhard

It is $5. Better than $99

João

No free shipping with amazon Prime to Germany ?

I do not have prime

Can you try the trial version (30 days) of Amazon Prime ?

Negative.. I have no use for it. I don't buy that much from amazon..

João

I also do not buy much from Amazon, but do use the Prime Movies which is under $14.00 a month
and when I do buy from them there is free and faster shipping.
I was planing to cancel after the 30 day trial time, but found I liked the Prime Movies, for now.
May cancel at some point.

jhsa wrote: ↑Sat Dec 29, 2018 2:03 pm Nope, not lack of experience. Because it was my decision. I prefer 10 times the chip quik stuff over the hot air station. Yes, chip quik is expensive, but it doesn't take longer than the hot air station if you know how to use it correctly
By the way, I do believe you still need the desoldering braid with the hot air station as you still need to remove the old solder and clean the pads

João

I can swap a mcu 100 pin chip in 1 minute or less, w/o wick, and a little more time to clean up the flux, can you do that with chip-quick? And you dont need wick with the hot air.

If chick-quick was superior then why would less than 1% of the electronics repair use chip quick method?
I have worked at Mitsubishi, Seagate, Western Digital, Rockwell and more, none of them use quick-quick.

Again, there is more than one way to skin a cat, chip-quick just costs more, takes longer and is more stress on the pads (while wicking up the mess).

Hi Ozzy,
It is good to see you have fine soldering skills.
I also wish I had fine soldering skills too.
What kind of flux do you use and where do you purchase it ?

No one is saying that one method is better than the other.. I personally prefer the chip quik method. And it is not because of lack of experience.
About the stress on the pads, I do think the hot air puts more stress on them than chip quik. Much higher temperature, and too high temperature is what can damage them
I don't care that less than 1% use the chip quik method. This is what I use, and I like it.
Others like what they like and I respect that. I do think that for a beginner, chip quik is the way to go. Less chance of damaging something..

João


Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

I use two types of flux.

Kester rosin rma type for all soldering but the critical stuff (bga, csp, qfn). This is semi thick and does not run all over the board when heat is applied like the the no clean types do. Its the darker brown colored stuff over the thinner lighter yellow colored stuff, it can be found just about anywhere, a $10 bottle lasts longer than the shelf life of the stuff. Most times I just add solder as this has the flux. 67/33 63/37 rosin core is my favorite solder as it has the lowest melting point, then 60/40 would be my next choice.

I also use chemworks tacky flux for the critical stuff. This has a tacky function. Apply flux, align part under microscope, hot air for a few seconds while pressing the part down lightly, this makes the part stick in place. This is excellent for bga, csp, qfn parts and critical for FIB parts. Fyi, fib is a part that the die has been reworked, most times, they use boiling acid to remove part of the plastic package to access the die, then rework one of the metal layers (connections) to fix a problem on prototype parts, the cost of these fib's are usually 1,000 to $3,000 dollars. So screwing up the soldering is not an option. The other option is making a new wafer, 3 months delay and 75~$150K

Tacky Flux is ~$15 a small tube, I don't recommend it for hobbyist (cost wise). https://www.chemtronics.com/circuitwork ... tacky-flux
It also works great for high speed signals and does not needs to be cleaned off for 10GHz and below, regular rosin flux should be cleaned off for 50MHz and above (especially 2.4GHz antenna soldering). We use Rosenberg mini-smp 60GHz connectors, modified for 90GHz bandwidth.

Here is our new real time scope, check the price (yep, half million dollars) https://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-x202060 ... =US&lc=eng
63 GHz of real-time bandwidth
80 GSa/s sample rate on 4 channels and 160 GSa/s sample rate on 2 channels
A single probe is $10K+. Rental of this unit is $10K a month.