SparkFun Forums

[leon_heller]

Drag-soldering works very well. I use a Metcal system with a mini-hoof cartridge, but you can use an ordinary tip.

Leon

[silic0re]

Thank you very much silic0re for this link.

It is exactly what i'm looking for .
However, board cost about 9$ and shipping cost ~ 75 $ for France !
Is there a cheaper place to order ?

There are distributors ( http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products_buy ) all over the place, including France ( http://www.lextronic.fr/R516-ci-en-boitier-qfptqfp.html ).

[Philba]

Drag-soldering works very well. I use a Metcal system with a mini-hoof cartridge, but you can use an ordinary tip.

Leon

Yup - no need for hot air. I wouldn't use a $5 soldering pencil but any decent quality soldering iron will work fine. You don't need an expensive tool. There's a video floating around the internet of someone using a huge soldering iron doing some sort of TQFP. The tip must be an inch (er, 25.4 mm) across.

You will also want to use liquid flux - it really helps.

Don't forget solder wick. It cures many errors.

[henryhallam]

Weller makes nice irons.

[bigglez]

Weller makes nice irons.

So does OKI (Formerly Metcal).
A Weller WTCP and Metcal sit side by side on my bench.

I've had good success while using a heatshrink
hot air gun as a poor-person's rework station.

[henryhallam]

Metcals are probably the best irons around, but something like the Weller WES51 is much more affordable for the average hobbyist while still providing decent performance.

[leon_heller]

I use a second-hand Metcal system. It cost about the same as a new Weller.

Leon

[winston]

Nice work Winston. Xilinx says to use 4 layer boards but your's is obviously 2 layer (at most). Have you had any problems from that?

It is a 2 layer board (most of the other side being ground plane, but I've needed to route a couple of traces on the back side). No problems so far for what I have been doing, but you can get ground bounce problems given that I can't get the decoupling capacitors quite as close as I'd like to the pins and being a breakout board usually connected to a breadboard, there's a fair bit of parasitic capacitance to deal with. (A friend who used my board had some trouble with ground bounce but solved it by using the shortest wires possible from the breakout board to the IC socket that it was going to).

[static]

Thank you very much silic0re for this link.

It is exactly what i'm looking for .
However, board cost about 9$ and shipping cost ~ 75 $ for France !
Is there a cheaper place to order ?

yes
http://futurlec.com/SMD_Adapters.shtml