There is a definite trend in electronics away from the older, larger through-hole components in favor of smaller, denser (and often more complex) surface-mount components. For now, many microcontrollers and support chips are available in through-hole DIP form, suitable for breadboarding or soldering using through-hole PC boards.
The writing is on the wall, though: to work with smaller components and/or more complex components with higher pin count, surface-mount techniques and equipment are needed. For one thing, FPGAs are difficult or impossible to find in DIP form factor; the only options are to use dev boards for everything (expensive and unwieldy for finished products) or to be able to work with QFN and other surface-mount packages.
I had recently come across an old parallel-port scanner being given away at a yard sale, and picked it up. My wife thought I was crazy — but scanners need stepper motors to work, and stepper motors are useful to have and normally cost actual money. I figured if nothing else, I could always just take out the stepper and throw away the rest. I hate to see technology go to waste, though, so I resolved to salvage whatever I could from the scanner. I got the stepper motor, a few gears, a lens assembly, a cold cathode light tube and its easy-to-use high voltage supply — but the rest of the components were mostly surface mount.
I’d been thinking of getting a hot-air rework station for a while, and this made the decision for me. So many devices are thrown away or sold for next to nothing at thrift stores and flea markets. Rather than seeing these components go into the Dumpster, why not build a stock of SMT components and teach myself surface-mount techniques at the same time? I ordered a nice-but-not-too-expensive Aoyue 852A++ rework station with a vacuum pick-up tool, and set the circuit boards from the scanner aside.
Last week, the rework station arrived. I tried it out at work (we’re seriously considering getting one for a device we’re developing). Here is a video showing how relatively easy it is for a hot-air-rework newbie to recover small components (most likely logic drivers and a couple of capacitors) from a board…
Now for the next steps: classifying and reusing the recovered components in new circuits!
