BLF 22DD discussion thread

Allright! Thats it, now you’ve gone and done it WarHawk. Now I’m gonna have to buy a hot air rework station and start putting these drivers together myself. Thanks alot.

One of us! One of us! :smiley:

Digging my heels, kicking and screaming”no, no, no!” I can be a bit obstinate at times. I have no intention of trying to put together even a small percentage of the project boards. I just wanted them all in one place and I’m vain enough to have wanted a sticky of my very own even if I did little to earn it.

By the way, is it ready to post as a beta, or what?

Ready to go boss…no change from Mattaus’s build…I just made it 22mm and added the “off time memory” capacitor pads

I’ve been making due with an iron but he made me finally buy my own the other day too. I think he’s workin for ’em.

I’m pretty good with an Iron and could probably get it done but I’m afraid it may bring forth one too many curse words.

What model of rework station did you get?

The Yihua 858D, $54 from amazon. I actually reflow the resistor / diode side on my glass cook-top then just have to iron the MCU & FET on the top.

You can hot air reflow both sides, the PCB keeps the components on the other side from getting too hot and re-melting and/or surface tension holds the components on if the solder does melt

I hot air both sides with this: ebay/stampabilities-heat-embossing-gun, about $20 - $22 from several places. Got my first BLF22DD's coming - just shipped from OSHPark today.

Thanks for the ideas, Tom E’s suggestion seems like the cheapest way, I wouldn’t have found that on my own. But I’m looking for an excuse to upgrade my soldering iron also, for a few dollars more than the Yihua 858D I’ve found a couple 2 in 1 units that seem to fit the bill.

Cereal_killer Is there any particular reason why I should go with the Yihua 858D such as build quality, etc? I’m asking because I’m sure you have researched it or got a recommendation from someone before making your choice.
$65.99 http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-IN-1-SMART-HOT-AIR-REWORK-SOLDERING-IRON-STATION-898D-/220799518801?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3368ad4851

$59.96 2in1 SMD Soldering Rework Station Hot Air & Iron 852d 5tips ESD PLCC BGA for sale online | eBay

I had bad luck with a bottom dollar hot-air / iron combo unit like that. It was an 852D+ clone marked as 952D or something. After <6mon the iron stopped heating consistently. I switched to the Hakko FX-888 for my iron and haven’t looked back.

IIRC I later learned that Aoyue was a decent brand among the cheap ones. I have no personal experience and I’m a little foggy on that, so I could be wrong.

I’m using a Yihua 937D iron with several different tips that works well now but read E5 on the display intermittently and wasn’t heating well. It turns out there was a cold joint in the wand and once fixed(the last time I used my old 20w pencil) I haven’t looked back. Not sure if I’ll go with air or oven first if I go reflow at all.

There’s all kinds of embossing guns and they can be found everywhere. Sounds like a plan. I sure am not going to pay anything more than a few bucks and that sounds like a cheap way. I’ve been using my soldering gun for everything. It works, but it would probably save time with this. Of course, I would have to switch to solder paste. Frown

That was the big expense for me! Especially since I first purchased some “Mechanic’s Soldering Paste” in the little jar like what RMM & the Chinese sellers have. I couldn’t get that to do what I wanted, so I ended up ordering some Kester EP256 in a syringe from CML Supply. I purchase through eBay where they don’t seem to stock it anymore, but this is what I got. I used it for the first time last night and was pretty happy w/ the results.

I got my boards. Anyone build these up yet?

I'm still waiting for boards and chips. My panels are still in production.

This is what I bought and use: http://www.kd5ssj.com/solderpaste. Highly recommend the 21 Ga needle. I use the 23, and it's a pain. It's a small amount but you don't need much. By the time you use it up, it will probably be expired. Recommended by a friend - this guy is a hobbyist - may take a few days to get it shipped, depending... I bought mine in Sep 2013 and probably half left, though I've used it a lot more lately with the OSHPark boards.

I get $3.55 shipping, total of $9.55 for 1 paste syringe, 1 21 Ga needle.

You think it might be worth getting stencils made? It shouldn't be a big deal for this driver, but with the Meld drivers I think I'd going to want all the help I can get.

corrected OP w/ correct OSHPark link and images

Thanx!!