Surface Mount (TT365)

At the other end of the technology/skill spectrum from yesterday's blip ....

This small circuit board (45mm end to end) supports a couple of ultra sound proximity sensors, the sort of thing you might find in the parking system of a modern car. The sensors themselves are on the other side of the board - shown in the extra.

Many of the smaller components here (R11, C8, R12 and so on)  are surface mounted,  meaning they don't have wires, just silvered pads which are soldered directly to the circuit board.  A technique which has been more and more used since I started in electronics ~45+ years ago.

Only the two sensors, the crystal and the mounting connector (right at the bottom) have pins which pass through the board and are soldered on the other side.

The small plane in yesterday's blip is all about hand eye coordination and would need some skill to master its use.  This board was most likely machine assembled and soldered.  They can be hand soldered, but I don't think I could achieve a good level of consistency with these small joints, without which the reliability takes a nose dive.

See in large to appreciate every last flux smear and the bits of dust I missed :-)

The board is part of the kit I bought to learn about microcontrollers with my grandson James.

Thanks to H0tamer for hosting Tiny Tuesday on the theme of technical.