Creudy Casnewydd / Newport Makerspace Wiki

This is an old revision of the document!

This purchase proposal is to improve our capability for surface-mount soldering. This is a big topic of interest for people nowadays, and could perhaps mesh well with the Repair Cafe if they'd like to try doing connector replacements.

Two options here:

1. We could go for a cheaper, but limited capability if we want to save some money. This would be a fixed magnification stereomicroscope, and a low-end Chinese microsoldering iron. This gets the makerspace SMT capability, although use would really be limited to people who already know how to as it's difficult to teach with this kind of setup.
2. Alternatively, we could get a simul-focal trinocular stereomicroscope, and more reliable/durable soldering iron. A trinocular scope with a camera makes it very easy to teach people how to do surface-mount soldering, as you can “look over their shoulder” whilst they're working. (note the “simulfocal” is important for this – it means that the camera port and the eyepieces are in focus at the same time. In non-simulfocal trinocular scopes, the microscope must be refocused when moving between eyepieces & camera port.)

1., the cheap minimal option:

• £190, Swift S41-20 dissecting microscope. A pretty standard fixed-magnification scope with twin arm lights. Mostly clones of Bresser BioRit ICD scopes. The 10x magnification is really a bit high for soldering work, but it's rare to find the 0.5x objective blocks so there's not much you can do about that.
• £67, OSS T210 soldering station. T12 station that's setup to take Chinese clones of JBC C210 micro tips.
• £257

2., the more expensive teaching option:

• £857, Amscope SM3-TPZ with camera. A standard soldering microscope; ring light, trinocular port w/ camera, comes with a 0.5x objective that puts the magnification range in a much more useful ~3.5x-20x.
• £444, JBC CD-2SF microsoldering station. Another more standard bit of microsoldering gear; an actual JBC 210 station. Tips are pricey, but they've got an incredible lifespan as they're well made; expect to replace >2yrs. Station parks/cools the second the handpiece in the stand which helps a lot with this.
• £1301