Section 6 - Mounting The Rf Module - Eggtimer Rocketry Eggtimer TRS Assembly Manual

Section 6 – Mounting the RF Module
You will be surface-mounting the Hope RF radio module to the board, similar to the GPS
module. The pad spacing is larger, and the part itself is lighter, so it is much easier to solder.
There are no pads on the bottom either, so it should be a breeze once you've mounted the GPS
module.
With a piece of paper masking tape about 2" long, tape the board to your work surface
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so it won't move.
Cut another piece of masking tape about 2" long and about ½" wide.
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__ Carefully position the Hope RF module on the board so that its pads line up in the
center of the top pads, the "half-moon" cutouts on the module should be centered on the pads
on the board. With the masking tape that you just cut, lay it across the top to hold it in place on
the board. Make sure that it's properly positioned, there are some small holes on the pads on
the module, they should line up with similar holes on the board. You may find that a few
pieces of extra resistor lead are very helpful for lining up the holes, put one in each corner to
line it up before you tape the module down. If you do that though, be sure to remove it before
you solder that pad... you don't want to solder the lead onto the pad!
It is important that the masking tape covers as much of the RF module as possible, up to the
exposed pads. This is to prevent any errant solder splatter from getting onto the RF module,
since the SMT parts on the module are exposed. There are some VERY tiny exposed parts on