Dieter wrote:
And is likely to be surface mount. Has anyone come up with a good
prototyping board for surface mount chips, like the very handy ones
for DIP packages?
Some company, I think in Germany, makes small square circuit boards that
you can solder one chip on to.
More than one user interface is possible. Probably the most
universal solution would be to put in both the RS-232 port and the
DIP switches; that way only one board would have to be laid out to
satisfy different sorts of users. It occurs to me that if the tool
is built with through-hole DIP ICs and switches, it can be
assembled with ordinary home-shop tools, and sold as a kit.
If you're thinking of making a PCB, devices could be surface mount,
*IF* the pins are spaced widely enough. The real problem isn't
surface mount vs through hole, it is the size. For de-soldering,
surface mount is actually easier than through-hole. The biggest
problem soldering is finding a small enough tip for your soldering
iron. You also want skinny solder and a good magnifying glass, but
those are easy to find.
The best two methods appear to be a toaster over or one of those small
hot air guns made for the purpose.
But for a prototype, those solderless breadboards for DIPs are very
nice.
You can get adapters (they convert it to a DIP). The less expensive
ones are solder -- you have to solder the SO chip to the adapter. The
solder-less ones are expensive and they don't work too well at high
frequencies.
--
JRT
_______________________________________________
Open-graphics mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
