HP97 The journey begins

[mfleming]

The soldering problem you describe is partly due to board quality. The typical low-quantity PCB prototype board needs brisk precleaning and drenching in flux when soldering. Gold plate pads OTOH need no flux. You should be able to specify that option (at an eye watering bump in price) to save time and damaged parts & boards.

I eventually went from hand soldering to reflow soldering using a homemade reflow oven to deal with fine pitch IC's and small SMDs. Another route is to drop a major bundle on a high end soldering station, something a friend swears by. Give the PCB upgrade a try first though, perhaps on a smaller project board. You might be surprised by the difference.

~Mark