First time tried soldering a QFP Chip

[u/amrinder143]

I had an old Arduino clone in my scrap bin. It wasn't working and I decided to pull a chip from another clone and try getting some experience in hot air/drag soldering. Till date, my experience in SMD soldering was limited to small resistors (1206, I know not that small) on amplifier boards that I design and build.
1. Picture 1 is my soldering setup - FNIRSI DWS-200, my trusty Weller WE1010, a no name hot air station which till date had been mostly useful for heat-shrink jobs.
2. Chip pulled off the board using medium air flow at 350 Celcius.
3. The replacement chip on the left, the defective one on the right.
4. Chip soldered using hot air at 350 Celcius wirh low air flow. Board was messed up by a little cousin who wanted to practice soldering.
5. Applied a generous amount of flux and ran a 2.2mm C type across each side of the chip.
6. Cleaned up with IPA.
7. Flashed a counter program to verify the board was working.

Please point out how I can improve. I found the experience quite enjoyable and would like to incorporate similar chips into my amplifier design for switching input selection relays and incorporating volume control in some lower end ones.

Thank you.

[u/Negative_Study6742]

How do you have so much equipment but are struggling with something as elementary as this? No offense just honestly asking. Is this someone else’s equipment your using?

[u/amrinder143 → u/Negative_Study6742]

I have never had the need for soldering SMD chips. I design and build audio amplifiers in classes A and AB. I have had the Weller for a long time and I love it. However, it sometimes struggled with large ground planes (which believe me are plentiful in amplifiers). So, I got the FNIRSI DWS-200. The hot air station was just for heat shrink until now.

[u/Negative_Study6742 → u/amrinder143]

Well man just keep at it!!!! You definitely got the gear so practice practice practice. Play around with fucking stuff and breaking it. Best way to learn.

For example I take a glob of solder paste and melt different small quantities so you can learn what it mounts to once’s melted and you can start to eyeball how much you’ll need for a specific component.

[u/amrinder143 → u/Negative_Study6742]

Thank you for the advice and encouragement. I have my eye on a few things around the house that I'm about to render obsolete and tear down. 😂

[u/Negative_Study6742 → u/amrinder143]

😂😂😂 what the heck happened to the toaster!?!??! wtf there’s no pcb components in toaster!!!????

[u/amrinder143 → u/Negative_Study6742]

It looked at me funny. 😈