1206 or 0603

[oskay]

Sigh. I'm too old to use them, I think.

Ha! My tweezers are too magnetic-- I find even 0402s almost impossible to use.

(OTOH, 1206 resistors seem to be about the smallest size that still has the value actually marked on the resistor bodies...)

Hmmm... even all my 0603 resistors have values marked on them... and none of the caps (0805 or 0603) do.

[adafruit]

5% 0805s are quite readable

[ralphstirling]

We invested in a complete set of partial reels of 0805 5% resistors and caps from 10pf to 1000pf plus .01 and .1uf
five or six years ago when we switched all our electronics lab design exercises to smd. We've found 0805 to be fine
for hand placing by inexperienced engineering students. We bought our set of reels from Garrett Electronics because
they had a decent price and I didn't have to spend two days entering part numbers in Digikey's form .

Our problem now is dealing with a bunch of 14" reels of random parts donated to us from Fluke. The rack we built for
our 7" reels won't accomodate them. I guess I can get empty 7" reels and spool them off, but that's time I haven't got.

How are all of you storing your reels when they aren't on the pick & place machine?

-- Ralph

[AdShea]

I'd say go 0603. They're easy enough to do by hand with a bit of practice, and the size drop is really helpful. I would say however that the EAGLE footprint library is awful. You absolutely do not need more space for 0603 than 0805. I use Altium Designer which has IPC standard footprints, but you should go with something closer to the LED style shown above than any of the others. If you're going for maximum ease of soldering though, 0805 is about the best trade-off for unmagnified or "big lens" magnifiers vs. speed.

[Zener]

(OTOH, 1206 resistors seem to be about the smallest size that still has the value actually marked on the resistor bodies...)

0805 resistors are all marked.

[freaklabs]

Here's a shot of how my reels are stored. I just got cheap containers from the local 100 yen ($0.99) store that could accomodate their diameter and were high enough for them not to tip out of the container.

[adafruit]

[martini martin]

I would say however that the EAGLE footprint library is awful. You absolutely do not need more space for 0603 than 0805.

That's why I make all my footprint and my schematic layouts myself. You can make it a lot neater, smaller and better solderable if you put some time in it. Besides you only have to do it ones for each new part you're using and my experience is that after a while you have a nice standard lib of all the things you often use.

[ralphstirling]

The Institute of Printed Circuits (IPC) has standards for "land patterns" (as they call pad shapes). You can download a free calculator from pcbmatrix.com that lets you generate IPC standard land patterns for any component. It still seems ridiculous, though, that every designer has to reinvent this wheel. There should have been a standard symbol and footprint file format invented a long time ago, with every component manufacturer providing downloadable libraries for their parts. You can download SPICE models from manufacturers, but have to do everything else yourself, or pay big $$$ for quality commercial libraries.

-- Ralph

[adafruit]

great tips, ralph..didn't know about that! the hours we could have saved

[sirket]

0603 is getting kinda small. I've hand soldered 0402 but I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I have a Mantis stereo microscope, great light, and a great soldering station and it still sucked. First time I saw them I thought someone had damaged the parts and the dust in the bin was what was left.

I can solder 0603 easily enough but I think it's just getting too tight for most beginners.

Freak: Good god you have a lot of toys Are those parts in your home or do you do this stuff for a living?

[freaklabs]

I'd have to say both. The parts are in my home and I do this stuff for a living. I'm trying to put together systems for wireless sensor networks which is my main area of interest. I was a bit surprised on how difficult it was to find decent dev platforms so I decided to make my own. Needless to say, found and had to overcome many obstacles to producing my own assembled boards in low to medium quantities and here I am at the PnP forum. It also helps that you can buy new and surplus reels cheap in Tokyo.

[blogger]

dunno what "tokyo" you live in, but assortment of trash you can pickup at "akiba" is hardly useful for any hobbyist projects and never mind anything semi-professional. and as far as internet/mail ordering of quality components goes, RSWWW is a joke, and well, that leaves just about digikey thank $deity for their > 7k free shipping deal or I'd have to suicide.

(alternatively, show me where I can purchase a 4k reel of 0603 0.1uF caps (ECJ-1VB1E104K or equivalent) for ¥1,548 and I will gladly edit and erase this post.

[freaklabs]

@blogger: apparently we're living in two different tokyos. The one I live in has an amazing assortment of electronic and mechanical goods and excellent parts. Even the parts you seem to think of as trash is what I'd consider my treasure. At $15 for a reel of resistors, I'd say you should continue buying from Digikey. I get my reels for $3/5000, but apparently, my Tokyo is pretty far away from yours.

[macegr]

Regarding the complaints about Eagle's footprints: At least a few versions back (based on my existing designs probably over a year ago), the Eagle RCL library was significantly updated. The description claims all footprints are IPC now. So if you're using a really old version of Eagle (we're up to 5.7 now), it might be a good time to upgrade.

I have my libraries and projects in a Dropbox so that I work with the same files on any computer, so I have to take the extra step of copying in the latest library files from new versions of Eagle. Let it overwrite everything. You guys all keep your custom parts in your own library, right?