Soldering is best done under magnification. Parts become ever smaller and eyes get weaker, so even if you don’t need magnification now, you will. [Makzumi] didn’t want to shell out $400 or more for a ...

Oregon State University must be a pretty good place to go to school if you want to hack on robots. Their robotics club, which looks active and impressive, has a multi-part video series on how to ...

SMD soldering – At first, I tinned all the circuit board pads for the SMD chips before trying to mount them. That was a mistake. With both pads for chip tinned, heating up one end of the chip caused ...

Modding today's hardware often means moving or removing tiny surface mount components, and using a standard soldering iron feels about as effective as using a hammer to kill a fly. If buying an ...

We've got a feast for your eyes today, and it's some of the most mesmerizing footage we've seen through a microscope this year. Robert Feranec, a hardware design engineer and educator who runs an ...

In the mid-1980s, the electronics industry began a nearly unanimous move towards using surface-mount technology (SMT), Figure 1. This article assumes you have an existing PCB or other suitable board ...

Improves wetting: Flux helps molten solder flow smoothly (or “wet”) across the surfaces, promoting even coverage and a strong ...