[I apologize in advance for the rant. My goal is to see if there is a better way to build my projects than loading breadboards full of breakout boards since I still suffer from SMD fear.]
I’m not sure this is the correct spot for this, but here goes…
Sparkfun has established quite a little niche in breakout boards for popular SMD devices that are only available in that type of package. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have many projects that have never left the breadboard, including one that runs my house that I mounted on the wall in a closet almost a decade ago…
I’m an old school DIP guy and found it really easy to prototype and bodge together projects for only one or two consumers. That isn’t easy to do with SMD. I know Sparkfun has been providing wonderful tutorials on SMD soldering, etc., but I can’t help but feel that the electronics industry is locking out the hobbiest while creating an opportunity for sparkfun.
If loading my projects full of Sparkfun breakout boards is the way it is, then so be it. However, I can’t help but think there’s a better way. Am I missing something?
What prompted this dialog is I have before me an XBee project that has evolved is now surrounded by little Sparkfun breakout boards…
It’s fairly easy to design a PCB and either make it yourself or farm it out (check out batchpcb). SMDs are easy to solder with a plain old soldering iron. There are lots of prototyping boards if you want to experiment. The superior hobbyist is inventive and determined. Get over it.
The hobbyist has to evolve with the times, and there really is no other solution than learning SMD work yourself.
Personally I find DIPs and breadboarding cumbersom and clunky. I make my own breadboarding modules, but my projects only remain on a breadboard until the hardware is sound and they are moved to a PCB fairly quickly.
I used to do only through-hole designs, just like yourself.
The defining moment in favor of SMD components was when I finally decided to try and include some SMD parts on a smaller project I was doing. It didn’t take long to see that probably the most important aspect of using SMD components was how much more efficiently board space was used. Through-hole designs waste a lot of space and the cost of getting the board made is probably the biggest cost I have to contend with in my projects. Components are relatively cheap - but boards are not.
I guess if you never actually design a board (sounds like you don’t from your post - with that one project running on a bread board for more than a decade), then break-out boards are the only option you have. If you do decide to design a pcb, SMD components will save you a quite a bit of money.
SMD rules, I make all my projects the tiniest possible with a trillion components squeezed into 1cm^2.
You don’t need to drill the board.
They take less space in my component drawers.
Even my grandma can solder SMD with the smallest pitch.
DIP? Are we in the 80s? Granted some high current or older ICs are only available in DIP, but most of the time there’s an SMD version. If there’s a QFN or LGA version even better.
I find it really funny that some people find DIP8 the smallest you’ll ever need and can’t understand why would anyone need something smaller.
I do use breakout boards, which I make myself. In fact for every IC I use there is a breakout board lying somewhere. Breadboards are not useless. There isn’t anything better for quick prototyping. Until I finish my project, there will be 100 modifications done, and I want them done quickly the moment I decide them. How else can you do this if not with a breadboard? This is what breadboards for. When finished, just make a pcb for it, strip everything of off your breadboard and its good to use again.
And of course I find it utterly retarded when I see people building a project completely on breadboards with a hundred breadboards and gluing them to the chassis of whatever they are making with wires flying around going from breadboard to breadboard or to WHOLE DEMO BOARDS which are glued to their project as well lol
