Whether you’re a book-learned engineer looking to finally get your hands on building circuits, or a maker, hobbyist, or student, these instructional videos get you started. The basic metallurgy of ...

Soldering to a PC board can be tricky: Too much heat can make the copper trace lift right off the board substrate. Use a soldering pencil rated at 15-25 watts, no more. (Watch the video; story ...

[Jack Gassett] is developing a new breakout board for an FPGA. The chip comes in a ball grid array (BGA) package which is notoriously difficult to solder reliably. Since he’s still in development, the ...

Through-hole assembly means bending leads on components and putting the leads through holes in the circuit board, then soldering them in place, and trimming the wires. That took up too much space and ...

When electronic components are mounted onto a printed circuit board, they are subsequently visually inspected to ensure they are mounted correctly. Historically, these boards were photographed with a ...