How inportant is MSL 3 ?

[thebaron]

Hi,

I recently ordered some MSL3 mcu's online and they arrived in a cardboard box inside some conductive foam. Now plastic/waterproof wrapping at all. The boards arrived a few weeks later and when i hand soldered them they didn't work. How are they meant to be shipped/stored? I would of thought they should be in some type of packaging? The price of the chips has now doubled i'm concerned about ordering more.

Thanks
Mick

[uncle_bob]

Hi

If you have concerns about moisture, bake (dry) out the parts before you solder them. Some moisture issues show as package fractures. If that had happened you probably would have noticed....

Bob

[thebaron]

Thanks. I live in Sydney and it was in the very dry period before the recent rains. I've been practicing soldering surface mount on some cheap PIC's from ebay. However everything i did before and since had worked so thought it may be the MSL rating. Next time i put in an order to Element 14 i'll get some more.