Dr Jefyll wrote:
Much tighter! In fact, you might wanna relax the spacing slightly in one or two spots. If you ever have to remove a chip from its socket, it helps if there's a couple of mm clearance at the end of the chip -- that's where you're gonna wanna slip the extractor tool in.
BTW, would there be any benefit in rotating these three chips 90 degrees? And: will that lowest chip collide with any part of the RAM module when it's installed?
I actually noticed that after posting, and moved the ram modules over to the right a bit, so hopefully no issues now
Dr Jefyll wrote:
This strikes me as an excessive amount of effort for mounting just 1 or 2 SMD parts. Perhaps you suppose that soldering those parts by hand would also be a great deal of effort, but that's not been my experience.
I think when the need arises to solder SMD parts by hand arises, that's a very good time to learn how.
Ditto when the need arises to use paste and a gun, or a reflow oven. But that need hasn't yet arisen, IMO.
So, my main thought is that I've worked with SMD before (although mostly in removing/reattaching with my hot air kit) and although I know it's possible, I've always had to go back with a solder wick to remove jumpers, and it normally takes me an hour or two to make sure it's correctly connected with no jumpers. I've also wanted to build a solder dispensing pen for a while, because I want to learn a bit about how it works. I've had this bug in my brain to have a tool head for my 3d printer that can apply paste to a board (and maybe eventually a tool head with vacuum for pick and place). So it's more an excuse to build the tool than it is a necessity.
Also, I've got a couple buddies who are interested in this project now and might buy spare boards off of me, and I may end up soldering the 6900 on each one of them to make it easier on them.