0.8mm pitch hand soldered ?

[Simon]

Is it worth considering hand soldering a 0.8mm pitch package ?

[Skimask]

Sure, easily done.  Even down to .4mm isn't too bad with a steady hand and the right tip on the iron...

[c4757p]

A flux-drenched walk in the park.

[Skimask]

A flux-drenched walk in the park.

Roger that...

[Simon]

ok i'm convinced, I may just put the dip away

[c4757p]

DIP sucks. You could park a truck on top of the chip...

[SeanB]

I have soldered SMD parts with a soldering gun ( OK, they were resistors, capacitors and diodes with the odd transistor but still the tip was a lot bigger than the part) so you should have no problems provided you use enough flux, a good light source and a good magnifier to see what you are doing.

[Kremmen]

Down to .65 mm it is quite easy. That said and depending on the exact method you choose, a high magnification loupe would be a good idea. Sooner or later you are going to accomplish a solder bridge and they may be somewhat hard to spot with the naked eye.

.8 mm is a walk in the park.

[hlavac]

My hands are shaking as hell but I still prefer SMD over through hole I want the small stuff...
Just leave enough space around the pads to get there comfortably with soldering iron and solder wick without melting off the surrounding components should the things go south...

And don't be afraid of solder paste and reflow, its even easier than hand soldering.
Just get a suitable hot plate/ pancake maker.

When doing manual solder paste with proper consistency you can even try to do it in reverse - dip the component legs in solder paste then place it on the pcb Auto solder pasting pick and place machine, anyone?

[lewis]

No probs. Plenty of flux and tin the pads, you'll be fine. Some good tweezers help too...

[poorchava]

Sure, easily done.  Even down to .4mm isn't too bad with a steady hand and the right tip on the iron...

Respect... for me there's a huge gap between 0.5 and 0.4. 0.5 is rather trivial for me, but 0.4mm is a total bitch to solder.

0.8mm can be hand soldered even in volume production environment I guess.

[EEVblog]

0.8mm is large enough to do each pin by hand with fine (<0.5mm) rosin core solder if you prefer.
But of course you'd usually just drag solder.
I assume you have solder mask between pins?

[Simon]

On production yes, for prototypes probably not, I'll risk it when the time comes, at the moment it's functional prototyping versus finished product prototyping.

[Zbig]

Go for it Simon, you won't regret it. I went straight from "SMT by hand? You gotta be kidding!" to hand soldering TQFP144 0.5 mm. The feeling of suddenly no longer being restricted to DIP stuff was one of the greatest moments I had with this hobby. And I only have freeware Eagle license so table-sized PCB was out of the question for me I use magnifying monocle (what is the proper English term for that?) - the kind of what old-school watchmakers used.

[c4757p]

Loupe, if I understand you correctly. I'll assume you're not using a real monocle.

(Damn. Add "loupe" to the list of perfectly valid English words that Google Chrome's spell check doesn't recognize. What are they, illiterate? )

[Zbig]

Heh, that was too easy We call this "lupa" as well yet somehow I was convinced you only call the hand-held type (like in search icon) that in English. Anyway, I found it works best for me even if you look a little weird wearing it (I got some funny looks at the fab when I was inspecting my first PCB). I wonder how would the USB microscope work out but I'm not sure about the eye-hand coordination while looking at the screen instead of the thing you're working on.

[IanB]

Most loupes appear to be of the hand-held kind. But there is a kind that you hold in your eye socket like a monocle, leaving both hands free. My father used one when he was engraving. I've tried Googling, but I am unsure how to describe that particular device compared to the regular hand-held kind.

[Zbig]

And this is exactly the thing I'm talking about, IanB. I find it perfect for SMD soldering. And I got it from my father, too.

[Simon]

I just use reading glasses. refocusses my eyes closer so I can look closer at the board

[nukie]

They are called eye loupes, used everyday by watchmakers. I drill holes on the side wall body of my loupe body for ventilation, it fog up after long hours of use.

Some people might find eye loupes hard to fit in their sockets, you can buy head band for it.

If you wear glasses, you can get clip on loupes.

If possible, get stereo magnifier, mono vision is less 3D hard to work with 2D? vision and it can cause lazy eyes syndrome.

[ptricks]

I use a contraption I threw together with a usb camera and a 5" LCD.
usb camera is positioned close to work, found out you can adjust the lens on most of them to get very close, within 10mm of work easily.
LCD is held in place above the work area so when I look down I see the image as though it were like a window to the work surface.
Found that works best because it gets rid of the move hand up try to match the image issue that I had with the display in the normal vertical position.

[Psi]

I just use an illuminated magnification lens, the kind that mounts to the desk and can be moved around.

My chin almost touches the lens (really close) i find that provides the most detail.
It probably doesn't 'look' cool but it works really well for me.

If your shortsighted it helps because you can focus on things closer than other people.

[Zbig]

They are called eye loupes, used everyday by watchmakers. I drill holes on the side wall body of my loupe body for ventilation, it fog up after long hours of use.
[..]

Right, that's exactly what's been done with mine on the photo as well.