Prototyping PCBs with XMOS chips

[f_petrini]

Yes, a reflow oven would be very nice to have. I've thought about getting a pizza oven and build a simple controller for it but so far I'm only making smaller boards in very small amounts so the time saved on a oven vs. hot-air is not worth it. Yet... ;)

[Bianco]

I use a magnifier lamp like in the picture below. (That's my soldering/lab bench. :) )
It works well for soldering and placing components. I use a simple loupe for closer inspections.

I took the freedom to check other directories.
http://www.glintsoft.com/fp/el/sn/ very impressive! what kind of things will it sense?

Any plans for publishing the Altium Designer library symbols for the XMOS device?

Edit: I see you have made a project on Xcore about the board.

[AkkiSan]

Yes, a reflow oven would be very nice to have. I've thought about getting a pizza oven and build a simple controller for it but so far I'm only making smaller boards in very small amounts so the time saved on a oven vs. hot-air is not worth it. Yet... ;)

Oh yes, a nice little toy ;-)
Although I have access to a BGA rework station, which of course can solder high-density
standard flat packs too, I built my hobby "reflizza" oven (the Reflow-Pizza ;-) a few month ago.

But I only used it 2-3 times for soldering a BGA.
The major problem for all other stuff, <=0.5mm pitch, is placing the part onto the
solder paste without creating short-circuits.

Another problem is the bad smell...
The first "calibration tests" were performed in our kitchen.
Just imagine that all the smoke and fume from a 2-3 manual soldering orgy
releases within 2-3 minutes... My wife was not amused ;)

I still think the good old soldering iron is the best way, doing all this at home.
For anything below 0.6mm pitch, I lengthen the pads of the footprint a little and
let all the traces leave the part in a straight line for ~3-4mm.


The real drawback of high-density parts are that my little private milling machine
doesn't work below <0.6mm pitch, so I need to order PCBs for these projects...

[lilltroll]

I use a magnifier lamp like in the picture below. (That's my soldering/lab bench. :) )
It works well for soldering and placing components. I use a simple loupe for closer inspections.

I took the freedom to check other directories.
http://www.glintsoft.com/fp/el/sn/ very impressive! what kind of things will it sense?

Any plans for publishing the Altium Designer library symbols for the XMOS device?

Edit: I see you have made a project on Xcore about the board.

I imported the XMOS devices found here http://www.xmos.com/support/silicon
into Altium. It worked! Have not tried the footprint but the schematic part worked without any trouble.