

(4) vacuum sensors

(4) 470.0 pf ceramic capacitors (surface mount 0603)

(4) 0.01 uf ceramic capacitors(surface mount 0603)

(4) 1.0 uf cermic capacitors(surface mount 0603)

(4) custom produce PCBs from SilverCircuits.com (4) vacuum sensors MPXV5050VC6T1CT-ND (4) 470.0 pf ceramic capacitors (surface mount 0603) 478-6201-1-ND (4) 0.01 uf ceramic capacitors(surface mount 0603) 445-5100-1-ND (4) 1.0 uf cermic capacitors(surface mount 0603) 311-1445-1-ND

I collected all the parts, brought out the boards, and setup my tools.I had pin headers from a previous project that split into eight sets, four sets of 2 pins and four sets of 4 pins.I suggest a good quality soldering iron when soldering surface mount parts by hand. There are many techniques to soldering surface mount parts, some are better when you have a lot of soldering to do; but I just do it by hand. Again, searching the interwebs will give you lots of ideas. While a fine tip on the soldering iron is not a requirement, I found that a flat tip that wasn’t too large was very helpful. Also use fine high quality solder.Having a solder helper is also very handy. Mine has multiple alligator clips to pinch the board in and they can rotate to hold the board flat. Further, mine also has a tray in the base to hold the solder spool.I found having some sort of vision enhancement was a requirement. While my vision is still very good, I could not imagine soldering such small parts without some magnification. I found using reading glasses with a decent magnification works really well. I only lost two capacitors out of the 12 I had to solder in. They were close to the size of a grain of sand. Next time I will use larger SM parts.I applied a little solder flux liquid (comes in a bottle) to each SM pad and a little between. This stuff is sticky and helps hold the part to the board while you solder. Then I lightly press the soldering iron to one side while being careful not to move the part. I then hold some solder to what little of the pad that is left showing next to the part lead, and it will just flow around the pad and lead. Let it cool for 15 seconds and then repeat for the other leads.Once complete, I used some alcohol and a Q-Tip to wash away any left over solder flux to clean up the board.