0201 practice board?

[pcm81]

I see a bunch of 1206 0804 and even some 0603 solder practice boards on Amazon. But what i am looking to practice soldering with is smaller stuff... does anyone know where i can get 0201 or atleast 0402 practice boards? I see very cheap boards on ali express, but they are also for larger package size...

Thanks ahead

[exe]

There are not that many for 0201. You can make your own. Anyway, a suggestion: https://www.tindie.com/products/makersbox/smd-challenge/

[UnijunctionTransistor]

My two yen opinion;
Because 0402 and 0201 are too small to be hand-soldered reliably by the vast majority of hobbyists, and these dimensions are better suited to be installed by precision pick and place machines.

And I know, there are people who can actually hand-solder 0201 devices, and have the videos to prove it. Here is one;

https://youtu.be/57bntqxfSFY?si=jg4-QYUF5jwr4MX1

[pcm81]

My two yen opinion;
Because 0402 and 0201 are too small to be hand-soldered reliably by the vast majority of hobbyists, and these dimensions are better suited to be installed by precision pick and place machines.

And I know, there are people who can actually hand-solder 0201 devices, and have the videos to prove it. Here is one;

https://youtu.be/57bntqxfSFY?si=jg4-QYUF5jwr4MX1

I am not a vast majority of hobbyists
I have a microscope.
Been practicing replacing a 0.25mm pads on QFP with moderate success so far.

[thm_w]

And I know, there are people who can actually hand-solder 0201 devices, and have the videos to prove it. Here is one;

https://youtu.be/57bntqxfSFY?si=jg4-QYUF5jwr4MX1

The most impressive part is that the tip is completely wrong, its massive.

With C115 and a microscope, its much easier.

[pcm81]

And I know, there are people who can actually hand-solder 0201 devices, and have the videos to prove it. Here is one;

https://youtu.be/57bntqxfSFY?si=jg4-QYUF5jwr4MX1

The most impressive part is that the tip is completely wrong, its massive.

With C115 and a microscope, its much easier.

Absolutely! I like bent conical in 115 as well as a blade on 115/210 or 245. If you let the tip to oxidize on purpose and then just clean the very tip of it, you can be very accurate.

[Simmed]

check this 1 out 

[Siwastaja]

Just do a real project with a lot of 0201. Bonus points for promising it finished to someone in dire need of the board. Necessity is a good motivator.

[EPAIII]

Two words:

Hot Air.

[SiliconWizard]

One thing you have to be careful with 0201 components: they are so tiny that they have ultra-low thermal mass. What it means is that you'll literally "vaporize" them if you apply too much heat with a soldering iron.
So either use a very fine tip and a low-power soldering station, and caution, or preferably use some solder paste and a hotplate for "manual" soldering.

[MathWizard]

I use chisel tips and I usually burn/melt the edges of SMD LED's w/ my iron, I need to practice that.

I've tried 04xx on a GPU, and luckily it worked. I don't think I used a microscope for that.

I should try something really small on an old junk PCB, with the microscope. And rememeber Obi-wan Kenobi saying to Trust the Force, and use the microscope. Or maybe using the force would be doing it w/o the MS. But I mean moving my hand, based on what I see on screen, that's still tricky.

[SiliconWizard]

I'd be curious to see someone manage to hand solder 0201 without magnification.