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SMT rework shops near Sacramento or Bay Area?

J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Many of us design folks don't have all the fine pitch gear to lift a
super-dense quad pack and solder on a new one. Same goes for some of my
clients, mostly the start-ups. So, are there any service providers that
can do these jobs on a prototype board or two? The usual fabs often
don't like such small jobs although some would reluctantly do it for a
good customer.

Sacramento would be great, or Bay Area if it has to be. There's always
Fedex, so in a pinch even father locations could work.
 
J

Jim Thompson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Many of us design folks don't have all the fine pitch gear to lift a
super-dense quad pack and solder on a new one. Same goes for some of my
clients, mostly the start-ups. So, are there any service providers that
can do these jobs on a prototype board or two? The usual fabs often
don't like such small jobs although some would reluctantly do it for a
good customer.

Sacramento would be great, or Bay Area if it has to be. There's always
Fedex, so in a pinch even father locations could work.

Got any snow yet?

Terrible weather here, overcast skies, temperature barely touching
70°F, and it may rain ;-)

...Jim Thompson
 
L

linnix

Jan 1, 1970
0
Many of us design folks don't have all the fine pitch gear to lift a
super-dense quad pack and solder on a new one. Same goes for some of my
clients, mostly the start-ups. So, are there any service providers that
can do these jobs on a prototype board or two? The usual fabs often
don't like such small jobs although some would reluctantly do it for a
good customer.

Sacramento would be great, or Bay Area if it has to be. There's always
Fedex, so in a pinch even father locations could work.

We usually ask the prototype shop to make the PCB and mount the chips
(0.5mm) and ship them together. If you let them make the board, they
will mount the chip for a bit less than a cup of coffee. Global
courier is usually 3 days, sometimes faster than local Fed-Ex.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jim said:
Got any snow yet?

Terrible weather here, overcast skies, temperature barely touching
70°F, and it may rain ;-)

Not yet, but it's rolling in. Yesterday was the worst, lots of uprooted
trees, one of them split a house in half. A neighbor was retrieving her
trash can before it became airborne and a big apple tree crashed down
right behind her.

This is how it looks like around here:
http://cbs13.com/local/severe.weather.sacramento.2.622287.html
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
linnix said:
We usually ask the prototype shop to make the PCB and mount the chips
(0.5mm) and ship them together. If you let them make the board, they
will mount the chip for a bit less than a cup of coffee. Global
courier is usually 3 days, sometimes faster than local Fed-Ex.


Same here and they usually accommodate us. But sometimes it's for boards
they did not assemble and it typically involves removal of a busted
chip. Yesterday a consultant friend had that happen and Jim (RST) and I
came up with a couple places he could use but none are close by. Well,
then his power went, on account of the storm, trees flying sideways and
all that ...
 
L

linnix

Jan 1, 1970
0
Same here and they usually accommodate us. But sometimes it's for boards
they did not assemble and it typically involves removal of a busted
chip.

We do have the equipments here (San Diego) to rework SMT, but it's
easy to damage the board. Sometimes, it's cheaper to move all the
good parts to a new board. We have regular global courier shipments
both way, so it's cheaper for us to ship them back to the factory.

It takes me a couple of hours to do a board (64 pins 0.5mm pitch) and
only a cup of coffee for the factory to do it.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
linnix said:
We do have the equipments here (San Diego) to rework SMT, but it's
easy to damage the board. Sometimes, it's cheaper to move all the
good parts to a new board. We have regular global courier shipments
both way, so it's cheaper for us to ship them back to the factory.

It takes me a couple of hours to do a board (64 pins 0.5mm pitch) and
only a cup of coffee for the factory to do it.


True. However, often I have only one board from a client. At larger
clients it's no problem. The techs have nice Metcal unsolder/solder
equipment and they can swap a big TQFP and such in minutes. That's the
kind of service I am looking for.
 
L

linnix

Jan 1, 1970
0
True. However, often I have only one board from a client. At larger
clients it's no problem. The techs have nice Metcal unsolder/solder
equipment and they can swap a big TQFP and such in minutes. That's the
kind of service I am looking for.

Yes, I have something similar to the Metcal HCT-900-11 Hot Air Rework
Station in my Garage. Even with that, I have to be careful not to
damage the traces and/or loosen other parts. I use it for
emergencies, but most of the time ending up sending them back to the
factory.

Unfortunately, my newer parts are too expensive to ship out. So, I
might have to do them myself.
 
B

Brian

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
Many of us design folks don't have all the fine pitch gear to lift a
super-dense quad pack and solder on a new one. Same goes for some of my
clients, mostly the start-ups. So, are there any service providers that
can do these jobs on a prototype board or two? The usual fabs often don't
like such small jobs although some would reluctantly do it for a good
customer.

Sacramento would be great, or Bay Area if it has to be. There's always
Fedex, so in a pinch even father locations could work.

We do it at times. http://www.risingtechnologies.net
 
L

linnix

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thanks! It's in the files now. Wisconsin ain't exactly around the corner
but Fedex goes there. Except right now, we are being pummeled by the
weather.

We can do it too.
If you want it done far away, it will cost you a Starbuck.
If you want it done closer (San Diego), it will cost you a Wynn buffet
in Los Vegas.
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
Not yet, but it's rolling in. Yesterday was the worst, lots of uprooted
trees, one of them split a house in half. A neighbor was retrieving her
trash can before it became airborne and a big apple tree crashed down
right behind her.

This is how it looks like around here:
http://cbs13.com/local/severe.weather.sacramento.2.622287.html

San Francisco looks like a war zone, a couple thousand trees down,
flooding, a fair amount of property damage, kind of a junior Katrina.
Lots of power failures, especially down the peninsula.

Winds yesterday spiked at 70 mph. It blew down a fence in our back
yard and sucked a skylight off the roof. I went up there, found it
nearby, and nailed it back down; only one layer of glass was crazed,
so it's still watertight. Damn near blew me off the roof, and the
raindrops were like ice bullets.

We have a break, but more weather is coming. The ground here saturates
fast, so mudslides and floods are likely.

ftp://66.117.156.8/Storm1.jpg



We have a good assembly/rework house we use on the peninsula; I'll
look up the name on Monday. Sometimes we do work for *them*.

In a dire emergency, you can send stuff to us; we have a lot of rework
and inspection gear, including bga, and some very skilled people.

John
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
John said:
San Francisco looks like a war zone, a couple thousand trees down,
flooding, a fair amount of property damage, kind of a junior Katrina.
Lots of power failures, especially down the peninsula.

Similar here. The force was quite amazing. We have a fairly heavy wooden
bench near the pool. Tied everything down except for that one because it
would never move. Wrong! It lifted off almost vertically and then
crashed into a flower bed.

Haven't seen any major damage around our house but couldn't check the
roof, too windy. Luckily we had replaced it with steel, else we wouldn't
have a roof now. Oh well, since the insurance has a $5k deductible we'll
have to fix whatever broke by ourselves. That bench might mutate into
firewood soon.

Winds yesterday spiked at 70 mph. It blew down a fence in our back
yard and sucked a skylight off the roof. I went up there, found it
nearby, and nailed it back down; only one layer of glass was crazed,
so it's still watertight. Damn near blew me off the roof, and the
raindrops were like ice bullets.

Don't do that, I know a guy who did slide off a roof and (by a miracle)
lived to tell about it. This neighbor with the uprooted tree also had
the whole east side fence blown over. A few years ago it was restored
but they "re-used" the old posts. That's what broke it.

We have a break, but more weather is coming. The ground here saturates
fast, so mudslides and floods are likely.

And some more trees to come down because now their roots are located in
mushy soil that doesn't hold anything.

ftp://66.117.156.8/Storm1.jpg

That looks like a picture-perfect paradise compared to here ;-)
We have a good assembly/rework house we use on the peninsula; I'll
look up the name on Monday. Sometimes we do work for *them*.

Yes, please do, I'd appreciate that (others probably, too).

In a dire emergency, you can send stuff to us; we have a lot of rework
and inspection gear, including bga, and some very skilled people.

Thanks. Although that's what I am trying to avoid, bothering others
whose normal tasks will become interrupted by such requests. Except in
emergencies. Like right now everyone who has a chain saw is in high
demand out here.
 
R

RST Engineering \(jw\)

Jan 1, 1970
0
We've got 6 inches on the ground and about that much coming tomorrow about
30 miles northwest of you, Joerg. You got any of the white stuff?

Jim
 
R

RST Engineering \(jw\)

Jan 1, 1970
0
San Francisco looks like a war zone, a couple thousand trees down,
flooding, a fair amount of property damage, kind of a junior Katrina.
Lots of power failures, especially down the peninsula.

Grass Valley regularly gets this sort of stuff in the winter, and our weaker
trees are taken out every year so they don't go down all at once. Wasn't
all that bad up here. Power went out for fifteen minutes Friday around
noon, but so far not even a flicker even with half a foot of wet snow.

Winds yesterday spiked at 70 mph. It blew down a fence in our back
yard and sucked a skylight off the roof. I went up there, found it
nearby, and nailed it back down; only one layer of glass was crazed,
so it's still watertight. Damn near blew me off the roof, and the
raindrops were like ice bullets.

My wind-o-meter has a peak gust of 90 at Friday around 11:30. It blew a few
twigs off of the Douglas Firs around the house. I'm sort of worried about a
dead DF about 20' from the house to the southwest, but it isn't big enough
in diameter to do anything but knock off a few shingles even if it goes.

We have a break, but more weather is coming. The ground here saturates
fast, so mudslides and floods are likely.

ftp://66.117.156.8/Storm1.jpg

Hey, we're half a mile above you. We send all our floodwater down to YOU.

But I gotta comment. Do ANY of the old geezers in your area know how to
drive in the rain? I'm coming off the Bay Bridge down 101 towards Foster
City and there are all these bluehairs in the fast lane with a death grip on
their steering wheels and hunched up over their wheels like that extra 9
inches will let them see better and going 30 in the fast lane? Not one, but
HUNDREDS of them. Gawd, no wonder there was bent metal on both sides of the
freeway a few thousand feet all along the roadway.

Sheesh.

Jim
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
Grass Valley regularly gets this sort of stuff in the winter, and our weaker
trees are taken out every year so they don't go down all at once. Wasn't
all that bad up here. Power went out for fifteen minutes Friday around
noon, but so far not even a flicker even with half a foot of wet snow.



My wind-o-meter has a peak gust of 90 at Friday around 11:30. It blew a few
twigs off of the Douglas Firs around the house. I'm sort of worried about a
dead DF about 20' from the house to the southwest, but it isn't big enough
in diameter to do anything but knock off a few shingles even if it goes.



Hey, we're half a mile above you. We send all our floodwater down to YOU.

But I gotta comment. Do ANY of the old geezers in your area know how to
drive in the rain? I'm coming off the Bay Bridge down 101 towards Foster
City and there are all these bluehairs in the fast lane with a death grip on
their steering wheels and hunched up over their wheels like that extra 9
inches will let them see better and going 30 in the fast lane? Not one, but
HUNDREDS of them. Gawd, no wonder there was bent metal on both sides of the
freeway a few thousand feet all along the roadway.

Sheesh.

Jim

And I bet they were all driving Volvos.

John
 
R

RST Engineering \(jw\)

Jan 1, 1970
0
What was your FIRST clue (and you are correct, either Volvo or Mercedes).

Jim
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
What was your FIRST clue (and you are correct, either Volvo or Mercedes).

Jim

Driving badly, oblivious to the rules or consideration of others, is
classic Volvo. Sort of like top posting.

John
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
RST said:
We've got 6 inches on the ground and about that much coming tomorrow about
30 miles northwest of you, Joerg. You got any of the white stuff?

Nope, nothing. And we even had a glimpse of sunshine at noon today.
 
K

Klaus Kragelund

Jan 1, 1970
0
Nope, nothing. And we even had a glimpse of sunshine at noon today.

--

I hope you are all kept safe during the bad wheather.

We (dk-europe) have had some real strange wheather behaviour in 2007 -
lets see how 2008 behaves.....

Regards

Klaus
 
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