原创 Nerds and microscopes

 2015-9-7 18:55  1399 9 9 分类: 消费电子

I've been a fan of ifixit.com and ifixit.org ever since I started looking at them for my travelling toolkit. I ended up using one of their smaller toolkits as the foundation for my final formation, which I carry around with me everywhere.

The reason I'm waffling on about this here is that the folks from ifixit have just launched a very interesting set of videos on their YouTube Channel. These videos feature a lady called Jessa Jones who taught herself how to microsolder after her kids had dropped her iPhone into the toilet and caused the charging coil to short out.

According to this ifixit column: "Jessa taught herself how to microsolder, fell in love with repairing electronics, and started a repair business called iPad Rehab in Mendon, New York. Now she does board-level repairs for a living and teaches microsoldering to other repair techs."

Reading further, we discover that the folks at ifixit recently acquired a Simul-Focal Stereo Zoom Microscope on a Dual Arm Boom from AmScope, so they invited Jessa out to their home office in San Luis Obispo, Califirnia, to teach them how to use their new toy and also to teach the ifixit community some basic microsoldering techniques.

They released several videos the past few weeks. In this series, Jessa will be walking us through microsoldering basics, the hardware we need to get started, troubleshooting, common mistakes, common repairs, and more.

In fact, they actually posted two videos last August 24-- the first introduces Jessa and sets the rest of the series up; the second provides an introduction to microsoldering.

I, for one, cannot wait to see the rest of this series. For too long I've limited myself to working only with the standard 0.1" pitch dual-in-line (DIL) lead through-hold (LTH) technology of my youth. Many of my chums, like Duane Benson, now happily hand-solder surface-mount devices (SMDs), so maybe it's time for me to allow myself to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.

I may even be tempted to invest in a digital microscope, but I doubt my funds will cover the "Simul-Focal Stereo Zoom Microscope on a Dual Arm Boom" favored by the folks at ifixit. I wonder how much that little beauty costs. I also wonder what the best option would be for an impoverished young engineer (like yours truly) on a limited budget. Do you have any suggestions?