#9 ARM STM32 Microcontroller Tutorial - Solder SMD Chips Like a BOSS!!

Purchase my new book: Arm Microcontroller Programming and Circuit Building Volume 1

Learn how to solder a fine pitch chip.

Links to the software:

Parts you will need in your prototyping environment:

Kits to get you up to speed quickly:

If you already have the microcontroller, here are some breakout boards to use:

STM-Link V2 Programmer:

Prototyping Breadboards:

Resistor Assortment Kit:

Solid core hook-up wire 22 AWG:

LEDs and Displays:

Trimmer potentiometers:

The Dynamixel servo I will be using in the USART videos:

Microfarad Capacitor Assortment:
Electrolytic Capacitor Assortment:

[bertbrecht]

I bought one of these boards from you and after watching this video I now understand that you are not doing this for the money. Thank you for this labor of love. I am looking forward to going to Video #1 and starting the series.

[sijojohnson]

👍👍
Best method is to avoid these bridges is to extend the footprint pad length to double or more.
Apply solder pase on the outer edge of the pad. When we heated up the board. Paste flows towards the chip. Because of this longer pad, solder bridges will be very less.
But only problem the board width will increase.

[marcususa]

I only came here to learn more about ARM, but I am pleasantly surprised by the expert soldering demonstration. Wow, so at 8:55 you remove the excess solder, but you don't have to worry about the (small tiny) pins still having solder between them?

[PerryLovewhistle]

This was very helpful! I just soldered my first lqfp100 thanks to this video!

[guser]

Nice to see I’m not the only one that walks the pads for shorts, good video keep them coming.

[umargul]

Great job sir thanks, god bless you for such hard working for us

[paulfitzgerald]

if I can recommend something. I'd suggest making a rotary switch system for continuity / shorts and have a socket you shove this into and then turn the switch one by one with the VOM connected to that.

Plus such diagnostics could also be done with a semiconductor diagnosing it within seconds. This would further automate your manufacturing and confidence for delivery. Let's say you used an arduino or another programmable chip, you could have a program built in that measures the typical tolerances and anything pins that have that transistor / diode continuity could be set as a bias so the diagnostic block simply gives an ok on the entire board with those shorts.

[markday]

That gave me new respect for small volume makers. That was a fair bit of labor for a relatively low price product.

I was surprised that the small amount of solder paste was more than enough. Applying it in the middle of a row of pins makes it obvious why you need to drag in both directions.

I'm still intimidated by the thought of doing SMD soldering.

[PatrickHoodDaniel]

I failed to mention during the process of dragging the solder is that I use the iron to remove many of the bridges. If you remove the excess solder from the iron tip using a soldering iron sponge or the metal wool, you can go over those bridges and suck up the solder on the bridged pins with surface tension. I use the solder wick as a last resort.

[varunkoganti]

Cool. Nice video!!!!

I just like to solder 2 or 4 corners and then drag solder it with a well tip. It's easier for me

[mic]

Thanks for sharing the process. I personally use a hot plate or a reflow oven with a PID controller depending on the complexity of the board. One thing I also considered but never try was an ultrasonic bath to clean the flux mess. Have you tried that?

Again thanks for sharing :-)

[orfeous]

Please share what magnifying headband you're using. I'm looking for something good and like that. Would be nice if you could take a picture in to the lens so I can see how it looks with the PCB and components with the magnification. Maybe hard to do.. :)

[pupul]

Can you demonstrate I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO, ADC/DAC ?
Please start segger embedded studio tutorials or suggest some links or books to study.