Lots of people say they have a hard time soldering. Well, I wear reading glasses because my eyes are not what they used to be and my hands are fucked with arthritis, i have only 55% use of my right hand and 70% in my left hand. It is what it is and they are only going to get worse over time, so no use bitching and moaning about it, i just get on with living as much as I can.
So, soldering, here is the tip and only the tip mind you (AVE HAHA) bright white light so you can see, and extra magnification. Even as a handycapped I am working with SMD components, I just magnify things enough and use the right tools. And the tools being different shaped tweezers and a nice thick 3mm chisel tip on the soldering iron. Yes, that big chunky tip is the key to things, you want to hold as much heat in the iron as you can. Use thin solder, 0.6mm or thinner because a little dab will do ya (AVE) and with heat in the tip, you are not spending time heating things up, just dab and go, dab and go. Tack one side of the part, lay the solder over the other pad or pads and dab the iron and its done.
The parts I use go down to 0.2mm pin pitch, SOT23 and 0802 in passives. I stay away from BGA and other leadless parts, they just suck, but everything else is pretty much good to go. So don’t be afraid, just illuminate and magnify, if you can see it, you can solder it. OH and flux the fuck out of it HAHAHA, flux will make you a winner.
Flux is the key to SOIC! I was having fits with it so watched Dave’s EEVBlog video a few times through, then grabbed a batch of cheap 20-pin parts and some soic->dip boards to practice. Around the 3rd or 4th one I finally put enough flux and it was like magic. After that it’s a breeze. As long as there’s enough flux the cohesion of the solder does the work for you.
Yeah EEVblog is where i learned to be ok with soldering SMD. Dave is the man LOL