Tutorial:
In order to have a basic understanding of how to surface mount solder, we watched a youtube video that helped us understand why surface mount soldering was different than typical soldering. For example, in typical soldering, we would put the components through the holes of the board, but in surface mount soldering, there are no holes, you use flux to then put solder on one side of the area for the component, then place the component down then put solder on the other side of the area for the component. The tutorial helped teach us the basics of surface mount soldering. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NN7UGWYmBY)
Soldering the Components and Chips:
We practiced surface mount soldering by starting with the second row of components, because the first row would have been too small to start off practicing with. We used the 1271 components, and since they were very small, we used tweezers to handle them and put them in place. First, we had to use a brush to put flux all down the right column where the components will go. Then we put solder on the first area for the component and then used the tweezers to place the componet ontop of the solder, that way it stayed in place and was in the right place. Then I added flux to the left column and placed solder underneath the component so it would be centered and stay down. I then repeated this all the way down the column. One of the hardest parts was trying to keep the component right side up and sticking it to the solder before the solder hardened, since the components were so tiny, they were harder to handle. Then we went on to solder the two chips in the center of the board. I chose to do the drag tecnique, but first I had to place the flux on the board where the chips were going to go, and I made sure all the legs of the chips were lined up. It was hard to keep the chips still, but eventually I did it. The drag tecnique is when I hold the solder over all the legs on one side at once and I just drag or go over the solder with the soldering iron, fast. It makes it a lot faster process, but I also ended up using my tweezers and soldering iron to get rid of some of the solder bridges that I created with the drag tecnique, but ultimatly this turned out faster and well. This was a good was to introduce us to surface mount soldering.