Janus Construction

Shipping box size for mouser (unmarked) and Digikey (upside-down) compared.

Packaging materials compared.

Mouser box as it came.

The two anti-static bags contents.

Parts from first bag spread on the table.

Parts from second bag spread out.

Parts bag deep inside the packaging from Digikey.

Parts from Digikey spread out.

Cheap magnification setup. Camera was the lowest cost ($20 after tax) usb camera I saw at a local store - I checked that it had manual focus before I bought it...otherwise just hoped it would work.

It works very well. The camera software had a built in zoom which does affect quality a lot...but also gives a very good macro. It's good enough to make the pins on the TQFP packaged CPLD VERY easy to see.

It took some practice to get used to working under magnification like that. It wasn't bad...but did slow me down considerably. This part isn't placed yet but the shot does show some of the problems with finding a light source that doesn't blow out the shiny solder.

Board after installing the first 22 0805 sized capacitors. Ones done under magnification were straighter...but had bigger messier solder joints (I suspect the slight delay on the cheap camera is throwing me off a bit.)

Board with most passives installed.

All passives except the three missing passives, D1 and the electrolytic caps. The voltage regulators and LED's have been installed at this point.

Empty baggies from components already installed.

View of my fine tip tweezers under the webcam inspection scope.

Side view of tweezers under mag.

0.015 solder under magnification

Fine tip for my soldering iron.

1mm chisel tip (my favorite even for the 0805 parts)

Chisel from side

Highest magnification I can achieve - webcam at it's closest focus with a 10x loupe held over it.

Iron tip compared to CPLD pins.

The finest tip will work...but barely!

0805 sized resistor in my fine tip tweezers.