I used to use 1206 parts too. But recently my doctor told me not to lift too heavy stuff. So I'm going with 0603 and 0402. :)

I used to hand solder SMDs a lot and became very good at it. Then I found solder paste and a hot air rework station and never looked back. Watching the paste flow and seeing the meniscus pull the SMDs into position is fascinating.

You should try soldering the LEDs in upside down so they shine directly through the board...

Its got to be PINK solder resist!

If you want to find Clive in the airport in winter, watch out for the guy in shorts and t-shirt.

The whole issue with those voting for Brexit and the issue with it's impending implementation is that people have been grossly miss informed about what it actually is. Probably the silliest aspect of it is that if the UK is in a position to leave and have that not have major implications it must have also been in a position to negotiate just about any terms it wants as being part of the EU. Issues like immigration which was Brexit voters primary reason will be barely affected by EU withdrawal. Issues like customs enforcement become more incumbent upon the UK while issues like the European single market which deserve legitimate scrutinize was always negotiable by the UK because their economy is enormous.

Long time lurker here, congratulations on 500k Clive!! Thoroughly deserved!! Thank you for keeping us edutained and inspired 👍🏻

Fabulous that you have popularised making & learning about the tech of our age in some such an eccentric & loveable way. Thanks for sharing!

I love Clive's prototype boards. They remind me of the boards you might find in a 1970s Neve console.

Clive, I look forward to every one of your videos. You have a really varied content, yet all is very interesting. I enjoy watching you build cheap kids, and new designs of your own. The best part is your commentary and your stories told during those kit assemblies. We all learn from your experiences.

Half Million CONGRATS B.C.

Love these videos when Clive is just building stuff. Nice and relaxing

"the carpet is full of surface mount components" - suddenly 'Honey i shrunk the kids' popped into my head, what a remake based on Clive's carpet would tell lol,,,

Congratulations on half a billion subscribers, Clive ;)

48 components fitted in one video, no whinging and not a bit of Bluetac in sight, a pleasure to watch.

Clive there’s a reason you see me looking through a scope in my picture. Even those little things are so nice to solder under it.

I would encourage anyone who has been reluctant to work with surface mount to give it a try. With just a small amount of practice, it's not hard at all. It's actually easier than through-hole in some ways. I have shaky hands and lousy eyesight, but if I keep my hands on the table and use a magnifier, I can deal with components down to 0603 and ICs with 0.4mm pin pitch. I won't say _anyone_ can do it, but if I can, your odds are pretty good. Congrats, Clive, on taking the surface mount plunge, and on the 500K subs!

I warm the PCB, then spread flux over the surface of the PCB, then a hot air gun and fin solder runs along the tracks like they are running after coil bars, lol. A quick wipe and Viola! You are ready to lay down components. Been doing this for the past forty years and never a fail.

I use to love making PCB's when I was a technician in a school. I used to make up the design in a program by Adobe. I then printed it on a postscript laser printer to a clear film. Then exposing the boards to a bright light on presensitised PCB board. Then a quick wash and an etch. I still come back to your site Clive. To me it's fascination and meditation in one.

Tip from mikeselectricstuff: Put the components on a sheet of paper and tap the paper once you've used all the rightside up parts and the upside down ones will flip over

i'd buy this as a kit, but then i'd have to buy a soldering iron too. to be honest i mostly watch these just to listen to clive's soothing voice (and to have my opinions about the proper temperature of rooms reaffirmed).

Back around 1980 or so, my buddy and I both built what we called an "ATMCTU". Anything The Mind Can Think Up. Basically a randomly-arranged array of different-coloured LEDs, each driven by a gate-based flasher circuit, with slightly different values, producing a kind of random flasher effect. We had originally seen something like that at a modern art gallery, but based on Neon flashers. I don't know where mine went. It was built on perf-board, hand-wired, etc, etc.

The day I run out of 60/40 solder, and can no longer get it, is the day my soldering iron will become forever cold. Great channel Big Clive.

Congrats from your friends, my family and me, from across the pond on the 500k!

Well done, Clive! You hit the half-million mark! I always thoroughly enjoy your videos and commentary. You’re funny and educational, and I really like the, “let’s be smart about it, but let’s bang a good thing together and refine it rather than eternally-plan a great thing.”

Congratulations Big Clive! Well done for the passing the 1/2 Million mark - you worked for it; you made it; YOU DESERVE IT. Thank you for all you do.

I popped into our local Poundland as a result of your 'recommendation' of their powerbank. It's excellent to run my H1 as it stays alive even with a minimal current draw.

Well done, Clive. GMTA. I worked out exactly the same soldering technique around 15 years ago. Welcome to the SMD club! Even more years ago, I worked for a company that bought one of the very first "pick & place" machines. Unfortunately, it was the PCB that moved - not the component placement arm. Consequently, it quickly got named "The Gritter" as it threw parts everywhere!

Congratulations on reaching .5 million, Clive!! As for the buttered toast thing- I finally realized that when I drop the toast and it lands butter side down that I was buttering the wrong side of the toast!

I'm trying to imagine this coaster with rainbow LED's. That must look really trippy in the dark!

Good to see you joining the SMT team, Clive. I jumped in last year and found that using solder paste and hot-air reflow made it a cinch. You don't even need one of those templates for something like you are doing. Surface tension pulls everything into place. With the solder-resist, you could leave areas for the light to come through and use whatever colour you like.

I love watching your videos while Soldering!!!

Coincidentally, I just did my own first time SMD project after 45 years of thru-hole component building. Built an active antenna for my shortwave receivers. I found it a bloody challenge for someone whose eyes now require a magnifier just to focus on the tiny components. Pings went everywhere. 0805 seems to be my limit. You may have fat fingers but I envy your ability to grab components and solder in one hand and apply a hot iron with the other with no clamping device in between. Mine tend to cramp in such positions. Finger dexterity is one of those things we take for granted, until we lose it to the medicines of life and the ravages of time.

Watching Big Clive work on a project is a lot like watching Bob Ross paint. Very calm and zen-like. I quite enjoy it.

I work monday-thursday, 10 hour days. It's really nice getting a consistent 3 day weekend, and we also get a good number of paid vacations as well. I work in a factory, where we make handmade snowboards. It's super awesome.

I'm not sure about on the Isle of Man but certainly in mainland UK 60/40 leaded solder is still widely available to the Hobbyist. The Range stock it (2x17g tubes for £1.49 or 1x100g reel for £8.99). With regard to solder mask, consider leaving a gap around each LED and then any colour will shine through - see Brian Lough's PCB3 video as an example of this technique in action.

Stopped ten minutes in to go order some ceramic tweezers. Didn’t know these existed. Thanks, Clive! 👍

"Our biggest export these days is fraud". Upvoted. Even though I disagree with you about Europe. Projections say it'll cost us far more money to leave than to remain. That, to me, doesn't sound like a helpful move.

It's really not up to Chinese sellers to give HMRC (or any other country's customs) "their cut of VAT". In fact, Chinese sellers _can't_ charge British / EU VAT to begin with. It's up to customs to intercept the packages, determine the applicable taxes (generally based on declared value - but they can open them), and charge those to the buyer. Even if the declared value is fake, they'll go after the buyer, not the seller (because they can make the buyer pay a fine; they have no jurisdiction over someone in China).

What about building it with a super capacitor and inductive charging so you can encase it resin and it will be a water tight coaster for drinks. And I mention a super cap so the lithium battery wouldn't have to be used and sealed in.

Hi Clive you really deserve this milestone having made so many interesting videos for us to see.

501K reasons why this is such an entertaining channel, Clive. Very well done! I've been buying from Bright Components, originally from their Ebay shop then directly, since my interest in Electronics. Their range of components is quite small but their prices are excellent and they have a very low despatch charge that is the same regardless of the size of your order. They also give out 10% discount codes to repeat buyers.

Here in Canada we have a chain of dollar stores called Dollarama, and according to the staff it's either headquarters that decided who got what stock, or it's entirely random. Fortunately, there's a lot of stores around so it's easy to browse a wide variety. I've found anything from actual leather tablet cases to plastic decorative trees and lights.

You can always cut out squares in the solder mask layer under the LEDs to let the light shine through, or even put holes there and mount the LEDs upside down (or use specifically designed downward lighting SMD LEDs)

I'm jealous of the way you hold components with your pinkie/ring or pinkie/middle and feed solder with your index and thumb. I know it's all practice and I've had very little of it. I'll keep at it. I don't see myself doing much manual surface mount soldering in my future, but for my simple-ish microcontroller projects it's not (yet) necessary.

The two dead LED's are because you soldered the resistors on backwards... ;)

The pick up and drop technique is industry standard, well done.

You should consider adding a rechargeable cell and a switch, for a truly awesome led coaster :D

I like surface mount components. No tedious drilling. I even use them on strip board. I tend to use smaller resistors like 0805s, I find them easier to handle, even with my old hands.

I love this man. Been watching him since

I like the idea of having a table with say 4 wireless charging pads recessed into the back of it that you could sit your phone on and have 4 of these with perspex on top as coasters like this with wireless charging adaptors on the bottom so they light up when in the right place on the table!

In a previous job, I used to bench test RF equipment and frequently had to replace bad SMD components. We kept our soldering irons at 700F (371C) which isn't far off of what Clive uses. It was about the speed of making the solder joint, as you wanted to keep your heating time as short as possible.

For ESD protection on the USB port you can just chuck a USBLC6 on to your design. They're so cheap I always keep a handful around.

I hope your channel hits 1 million before the end of the year! All your content is great.

Wow Clive, i have hanging around here that long ? I seem to recall 97k when i came on the scene. Well you have turned out to be one of my very favorite channels Clive. I think it was the disco piss light that drew me in. Hats off to you my friend, i am pleased that you have prospered well. I look forward to more as time goes by. J

I've been working with 0201 sized bits. Not fun! Good tweezers are a major plus. I'll be looking into those ceramic beasties.. And I wish I could use lead solder, but not for product. My own messing, yes! We have various products, some using 70's tech, some using DSPs, ST and PIC micros and so on. So quite a variety. Thru-hole parts thru to teensy SMDs. I have Clive-style paws and am 60+. But manage... Sure is nice tho, using parts that don't all disappear if you sneeze. Thanks for a fun ramble and a useful lead. Keep on Clivin'! Enjoy, Stu

Looks great. The technology is amazing that you can do this sort of thing at home.Thought you were going to build the ultimate COB light for my pepper plants. ThankQ. TkEZ

Nice to see the 500k..........

Nice! I always assumed you had to fart about with solder paste and heat guns for surface mount - feeling much more confident after watching this, might even have a go at replacing the ASIC in my black +2 (Spectrum)

I always learn something watching Clive . What more could you want .

Congrats on half a mill Clive! And I was surprised and delighted when you mentioned Eric O of SMA! Fancy my favourite electronics channel also being a fan of my favourite automotive channel 😀

Your projects are awesome for their simplicity and audacity. Two thumbs up.

EVERYONE loves BC p'cause... the way he talks... Oh so soothing ❤️

@bigclivedotcom I have got to say; That is about the coolest printed circuit board I have ever seen. If I had to describe it in one word, I would choose the word "Groovy".

I recently assembled Dekada substitution resistor, i bought it straight from the author via his eBay account, he's somewhere in Slovenia. It's all made of 1206 resistors packed tightly together, and it is somewhat on the finicky side. Took me an hour. It wasn't unpleasant, but made me wish i'd used the paste and heat method. I have everything i need for it but couldn't be arsed for some reason, decided to just hand solder it. I'm kind of used to doing SMD repairs but don't usually assemble SMD kits. It's fairly obvious that had you made your light as a through-hole design, it would only take you minutes to assemble it rather than half an hour. Then again paste and heat should take mere minutes too. One more thing i used to do is that you can cover a PCB in fitting solder paste (lifetime supply about 7€ at a home improvement/hardware store), heat it all up - stove top, heat gun, doesn't matter, and it crackles and pops and tins your whole board, protecting the copper traces and giving you a surface that's even and easy to solder to.

I think your paw tester worked out wonderfully! Congratulations on all those subscribers and keep up the great work!

I love this kind of projects. There you have an idea: add a lipo battery in the middle of the pattern, and a small tp4056 to charge-protect it. Also, some kind of capacitive or pressure sensor to trigger it with the battery, or allways with the usb plugged in. That way, it would be iluminated as long as you have a glass over it or you touch it...

26:00 - Mythbusters tested it, haha. I can't remember what the results were but I think it was random. Congrats on 500k also, I found your channel not too long ago after finally deciding that I wanted to get into hobby electronics. Loving your content. 37:19 looks like some alien bug or something. I quite like that.

SMD is so much easier to do than leaded especially on hobby projects. No need to drill holes, no need to bend, insert and clip leads, no need to turn the board upside down for every part.

On DIY boards with no solder mask, you can put a bit of kapton tape to block the solder from flowing down the trace then pre-tin one pad with a bare amount of solder then wipe the tin with a bit of flux and solder the component. Repeat with the other pins. Makes the filet of solder look pro if you don't use paste.

When playing with SMD, my best experiences are with: - Double-sided sticky tape to hold the SMD carriers on a piece of cardboard. - A piece of sticky tape to pull back the carrier top plastic. You can pull the whole thing off or just peel it back one component at a time.

Jeez! It's like watching grass growing. But I like to listen to the guy, so resisted temptation to fast forward. :-)

Re that magnetic USB lead; If you do lathe and mill work, you'll find a regular build up of metal filings on the tip attached to your phone, and eventually, if not cleaned off, will short the centre pin to the outer ring.

I have some ceramic tipped tweezers a lot like those. They're awesome. Congrats on 500k subs, by the way!

Regardless of the fact I've watched you for a long time every time I see your icon I can't help but see a little cartoon character with his arms in the air and mouth open with floating glasses above him like how link does from legend of Zelda lol

501K Bravo!!! Many moons ago, in the early 90's i worked for a large Japanese firm, they had a machine that used to place every surface mount component is one go, it was something to see, but a bloody nightmare if it drifted minutely over a run...which did happen quite often sadly

Carpet Concealed Components. I once ordered SMD components without noting that the size units. I thought that they were inch... They arrived as metric dust particles, for all that I could tell. Love the ceramic tweezers. Surface mount works more easily with solder mask. And you can tell the board makers where to put it... or not. So translucence isn't necessarily compromised.

I thought I'd never do SMD, but learned about it a year or two ago. One big lesson: get a stereo microscope, with good working distance. It's "only" 10X, but I can do 0402's with the small angled (0.2mm iirc) or straight standard Hakko tip (not their micro line). They're fiddly though. 0603 and others no problem. If I'm doing more than a couple, I've found solder paste and hot air (and sharp tweezers) best and got pretty fast with them. We moved last summer and I haven't built my lab yet, so I might be out of practice. One of my little projects was doing a hand laid out (no PCB, just protoboard) LED palmtree with 0805's - about 87 of them. The proto board had parallel rows that you can slice up to make your circuit, but for the LEDs, I figured I could do them all in parallel, powered by 3 NiMh AA's and a single resistor. I set it so it wasn't too bright, which worked out to less than 1 ma per "true" green LED. This combination kept the LEDs in the "knee"; barely on, but perfect for our room lighting. Lasted for about 8 days 24/7. No case, just used geeko tape for battery case and a couple of stand-offs point out the back bottom to make a stand. My wife loved it (she's a geek too, so didn't mind the open construction one bit). Loves "true" green LEDs too. I ramble too much! Most importunately, congrats on 500K as of this evening (from central California)!!

Awesome video, love these longer ones while you tell stories very entertaining and educational. Thanks for posting .

The USB shield doesn't magically dissipate ESD, it shunts it to device ground. Static discharged into the 5V pin will get coupled to ground through supply bypass capacitors in most devices (typically at least 10uF) and won't damage anything either unless you really overdo it.

I discovered those magnetic cables last month , now I have a bunch and not going back

When I saw the start of this video I thought an electro luminescent Big Clive t-shirt design was available

I use two fine tip soldering irons to put on SMT resistors and caps. One in each hand. Pick up the resistor with the two irons and place it. This is also the only way to remove a SMT resistor without damaging it. I also have a stereo microscope because at my age I can't see doodly squat close up.

During 'official' testing of toast always falling buttered side down, the statistics showed that it did indeed usually fall that way. The instances where the toast fell buttered side up were explained as follows: the toast had been buttered on the wrong side.

During job school (or however it's called everywhere else) we had to do projects that involved designing the circuit board, etching the board, soldering etc. Basically what you did here. However for the last project we had to use SMD components and not through hole which was concerning as if you lost a component, or it got stolen while you weren't looking which happened often, you would not get a replacement part. Imagine that with SMD parts and beginners. We all lost something at some point, some even got sucked up by the air filter which was funny. Haven't done this stuff in a year now, don't have the time or money to do so. Kind of a shame but at least I can watch you do SMD soldering.

People have indeed tested the buttered toast thing and it does indeed more often land butter down, best theory as to why has to do with the natural rotational rate of a bit of bread in combination with the height of kitchen work surfaces, seems they just happen to match in a way that causes splat landings more often.

Very cool LED thing and congratulations on half a bazillion subscribers Clive! Well done and weller done!

Love your vids, but I can’t unsee the Charlie Brown character yelping to the sky with his arms in the air in your logo...

I was totally digging this project, but was honestly kinda confused about the aesthetics of it, that is until I got to 37:00. My jaw dropped, it looks incredible

I've been having success doing a toner transfer by using the glossy back of a sheet of mailing labels. I'll usually print 6 bottom and 6 top layers on one sheet and choose the best of the lot - and also have spares for errors. Then when transferring I set the iron to wool. An ideal temperature is about 130 C but I have mine set a bit higher to compensate for the fluctuating temperature. Tape it to the board with kapton and use a lot of pressure to make the transfer. It doesn't need much time, about 30 seconds to a minute, run a few trials to see what works best.

The magnetic adapter connector... not an issue... I'm using these for year and still good. We all are in the house, using these, not only for phones but many other lil devices ... I was annoyed by having the fiddle with different cables all the time.. not anymore. The only actual issue is if you slide the cable off of the connection to separate them and that sometimes causes a short... my phone is happier since I found that it was this "procedure" that causing it to shutdown. Here's one for you Clive: try to kill the LED inside the cable as the light is too disturbing to leave them in the bedroom at night.

Big Clive has invented a new word - *underunding* 🤣

Clive congrats, by the time I did watch this you were already over 500k. People used to joke on how much individual items were in Poundland and dollar stores, these days however, more and more things are at higher prices. Where oh, where, am I going to get my Caviar now? Another thing, ironic that lead was taken out of solder to reduce the environmental impact. But, things seem to be breaking down much faster now, meaning more stuff gets thrown in landfill, then a lot of the stuff which gets recycled, is picked apart in other countries affecting their environment and personal health of those doing the work.

Fun project. I use the same PCB manufacture process at my shop. As far as SMD soldering skills, just like anything else, the more you do it the better you get. At my job I do an extensive amount of SMD rework, everything from 0201 components to micro BGA's, large BGA's and many more. Was I good at it at first? Oh hell no lol! Took some time, effort, and patients. Concerning lead free solder not being reliable, have no clue where that comes from. Lead free is extremely reliable. We build class 3 electronics assemblies and if there was the slightest doubt on lead free reliability it would be prohibited.

Congrats on the half million Clive! Now onward ho to best Colin Furze! We all love ya and know you can do it!! PEACE:)

For solder mask, I like to go with unusual colors that catch the eye. Since I live in the US, I tend to order from OSH Park, so my solder mask is a deep, rich purple. You'll probably be ordering from the UK; Pure PCB and the other two firms I looked at have a brilliant royal blue.

"People throwing toys out of prams". You're much kinder with your words than I.

Congratulations Clive on half a million viewers. That officially makes you as popular as the UK following of Aussie soap, Neighbours. Rippah!

Well done Clive on reaching the half million subscribers - you must be doing something right...

Looks like you got the famous "sticky tweezers" there at the end, from the flux. The dark side of hand soldering surface mount.