In a message dated 01/11/2000 1:10:22 PM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Hi all,

 TEKA makes "stackthrough" PC/104 connectors with solder/flux donuts around
 the leads.  Is anyone having success reflowing these by hand using a hot air
 station?

 We are currently hand soldering PC/104 connectors without the solder/flux
 donuts. (There has to be a better way.)  The TEKA connector seems like it
 would work great in a reflow oven, but I'm not sure if it's practical to
 hand reflow with hot air.


 All info is appreciated.


 Jeff Landes
 Nielsen Media Research >>

Hi Jeff!

I was going through the same headache at my last employer. I had only two
rework operators that were skilled enough (Trang and Tran...and they didn't
drink coffee... hehehe) to be able to hand solder them puppies in. As you
know it doesn't get tough until you put the last connector in.

And as a matter of fact, I have had experience with the Teka PC104 connector
with solder bearing leads, and a hot air tool from Leister. It worked
wonderfully!

The nozzle that went on the Leister hot air tool has the hole pattern of the
PC104 footprint and directs air at each individual pin so in my opinion, it's
a more efficient way to reflow the solder preforms than one of the other hot
air tools out there and made specifically for PC104 connectors.

With that tool, I found that the temperatures were not uniform across the
footprint of the connector...it would be quite a bit hotter in the center
than it was out towards the edges. In fact, the PCB would sometimes discolor
in the center of the footprint in order to get complete reflow out at the
edges.

The Teka connector and the Leister tool cut the time down from about 12-15
minutes to between 2-3 minutes max....not shabby huh? Talk to somebody at
Teka about the tool, they can hook you up...

You could do the same thing in a reflow oven if you don't have any through
hole components that are susceptable to the heat. The boards that we were
building had some other through-hole on them that couldn't take the heat.
There was enough on the boards to wave and we did the connector as the last
step...

The real fix to the headache of having to solder PC104 connectors is to spin
the board so that you can use press-fit connectors...but it may be like it
was with me. That wasn't an option...

-Steve Gregory-

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