Yes the standard options are ok, I only don't understand why it states 5 boards, normally it's 10 (which you probably don't need). Also used Green as color, but if red is the same price and your preference, that's ok :D. I think I tried Black and it became more expensive, so I stayed at Green. Please wait with the PWM board, I've made a new PCB the size of the PI which should fit directly on the HAT
I tried soldering the PCA9685 but it didn't work due to several reasons:
* My eyes couldn't see the tracks clearly while soldering although I normally can see close very sharp. Could have been the light condition.
* Wrong solder iron tips (sharp, was bending the housing pins and damaging silk screen). Looking at more youtube video's it became clear they mostly used broader/flat solder tips
* Shaking hand, which is a decease I unfortunately have since youth
Found on youtube an interesting video where you just position the chip with a normal solder iron (bottom/left and upper right which worked fine for me), then just place solder paste over all pins and then solder with the hot air gun.
have a look from 5:45 at
Also found a lot of other video's showing that SMT components like resistors position themselves when hot air is applied. I do know however from my former employer that components may 'flip up', applying solder paste for high volume production in a reflow production line (meaning millions of components) is critical (meaning reaching low PPM values). As a trial I also ordered a stencil for the PWM board from JLCPCB, there are interesting video's for this as well, for instance:
In the meantime I have:
* Ordered the new board as shown above, used standard shipping this time, not DHL. In the Inet I found usually 17 day's shipping time. Have to wait anyway for the other equipment as well.
* Ordered different solder iron tips (broad and SMT specific) (14USD)
* Electronic magnifying glass (48 Eur)
* Hot air solder station (40 Eur) with solder paste (18 Eur)