How to easily solder surface mount components on the BBB

[mdAndy]

Used for surface mount inductor and crystal caps

Items needed:
Super glue - fast drying.
tweezer
toothpicks

Steps:
#1 Put super glue in a plactic holding cap or throw away container.
#2. Poke the superglue with the toothpick to transfer the glue to the PCB.
#3. Put a very, very, very, very, small amount of super glue in the center of the surface mount pad.
DO NOT PUT SUPER GLUE DIRECTLY ON THE COPPER PAD!
#4. Use tweezers to transfer the component to the pad and super glue.
#5. Carefully place the surface component on to the glue and pad and use another
toothpick to press the surface mount component into the glue on on the PCB.
#6. Let dry.
#7. With a very fine point soldering tip, just solder the surface mount pads.
#8. You are done! <--- The hard part was placing and holding the component down for soldering!!!

[paul]

I don't doubt this works mdAndy but if you really need to hold things down, I recommend a product called tac adhesive. There are also other trade names for it. It's a kind of putty used for putting up posters on walls etc. A tiny piece can be used to hold down any sm part, but it's repositionable and won't end up on pads, like superglue might.

Paul

[mdAndy]

Your tac adhesive should work well on the larger inductor but not the crystal caps.
You might also need a headmount optical magnifier to even see the miniature caps.

[paul]

I did think about putting in through-hole pads for the caps but decided on a preference for neat labels on the top side. With a little practice the sm caps aren't so hard to solder. Also you do need a soldering with a decent point. I generally don't do hold them down but I'll bet a bit of the tac would hold the caps neatly. It cuts easily to almost any size so just a tiny piece would be needed.

Mainly though - it's sm chips that need precise positioning to get the diagonal pins located well. After that it's all easy.