PCB Soldering and Assembly

Discussions center on soldering chips and components onto PCBs, including SMD and BGA handling, alignment issues, hidden chips, and hobbyist challenges like busted pads or long leads.

➡️ Stable 0.5x Hardware
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#1611
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e.g CPU hackaday.com OK IC SOIC EMI BGA saleae.com youtube.com pcb board chip wire soldered solder chips pin wires circuit

Sample Comments

codedokode Jul 4, 2018 View on HN

What if there are chips and wires inside PCB?

kcsongor Jun 30, 2015 View on HN

that is actually not a breadboard, the stuff is soldered :)

MrMorden Jun 15, 2019 View on HN

An extra chip on a bare board would stand out quite a bit.

bryanlarsen Sep 28, 2025 View on HN

Which doesn't make any sense, because the article also claims that the chip was soldered in place. Solder generally only works between two pieces of metal, making an electrical connection.So either the chip was glued in place and not soldered or it was soldered and electrical connections were made. Either way, the article is wrong.Standard operating procedure for a board with a messed up footprint is to glue the chip into place upside down, and then use patch wires to make the cor

kator Mar 10, 2014 View on HN

There are chips on both sides of this board, is there a chance you could re-flow them off because of gravity on the other side of the board?

phyushin Nov 7, 2016 View on HN

Does it bug anyone else that the chips aren't aligned to the board

amelius Apr 30, 2024 View on HN

Any tips for handling BGA packages? Is it possible for hobbyists?

archarios Jan 22, 2020 View on HN

I bought a kit and busted one of the pcb pads when trying to solder it together :'(

brundolf Nov 25, 2021 View on HN

Huh, I assumed those would be soldered on or otherwise baked into the chip

evan_ Jun 25, 2014 View on HN

They look like unbent paperclips sticking out of a pcb.