On Tue, 31 Aug 1999 09:59:58 -0700 Anne Ogborn writes: > Frankly, for that price it's saner to get somebody from state > unemployment and > give them a soldering iron. > Thru-hole, here we come! I think it's easier and faster to hand-build SMT for a person with a little practice Be sure to design the board very conservatively. Don't use any parts with pin pitch less than 0.05". Use 1206 resistors and capacitors. Put parts only on one side of the board. Don't put the parts close together. Line up the resistors and capacitors so they are all along the same axis, this makes it easier to solder them one end at a time. Don't route any traces between IC pads or too near other pads. You'll still end up with a board that is smaller than the equivalent thru-hole one. SMT parts go on the board fast. These time-consuming steps of thru-hole are avoided: * Bending the part leads to fit through the holes * Turning the board over and back between placing and soldering * Cutting the excess leads off With SMT, the hand-working assembler would tin one pad of the board, place the component using that pad to tack it down, then solder the rest of the leads (at any time). If all the resistors and capacitors are on the same axis, it works well to place them down with one lead, then turn the board around and solder all the other leads. ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.