Yes, but I am anticipating some sort of solderless breadboard for the larger SMD devices. If I knew exactly how it would work and function, I'd be selling them already. Once those exist at an affordable price, through hole components will go the same way point to point wiring did when PC Boards became economical.So will we see through hole go away in our life time? If so, that is going to make it awfully difficult for the hobbyist.
So some prototypes are down in through hole?Quite a few designs are still prototyped on either breadboard or with faster systems, wire wrap.
True, but I've been trying to think of a way to use SOT-23 and similar SMT in a prototype environment closer to the final PCB. Some sort of solderless breadboard with clamp system like the adapters, but without the link of through hole and breadboard.For years, there have been carriers that convert SMD parts to DIP specifically for the purpose of enabling prototyping on solderless breadboards. Other carries convert higher pin count parts to PGA outlines.
Just for me.Seems most manufacturers use SMD today. So then, why are through hole components still made?
How would it work for caps, coils, resistors, transistors etc?Yes, but I am anticipating some sort of solderless breadboard for the larger SMD devices. If I knew exactly how it would work and function, I'd be selling them already. Once those exist at an affordable price, through hole components will go the same way point to point wiring did when PC Boards became economical.
Clamping, just like the chip carriers for programmers, but 2 terminal. The hard part is figuring out how the interconnects would be put in place without a breadboard.How would it work for caps, coils, resistors, transistors etc?
A clamp of sorts, yes, that's where my idea sort of falls apart.Wouldn't you need a carrier for every smd?
Like you've said, maybe someone will think og something clever and make a fortune. I see two really big hurdles, though. The first, touched on above, is that unlike the handful of centeral components, like a MCU or such, if you try to work with general SMD components you go from needing carries for one or at most a few components to needing to deal with dozens or even on the order of a hundred components. I can imagine some kind of a gang carrier that has, say, a dozen slots that you drop your choice of 0603 parts into and then clamp them all at once and there is a dip header to plug into a bread board. Maybe something similar for SOT-23. But this approach runs up against the other issue and that is that more and more prototyping is being done on faster and faster circuits and even circuits that are only being run at low speed are using ICs that are increasingly fast and therefore more sensitive to parasitics on the I/O pins.A clamp of sorts, yes, that's where my idea sort of falls apart.
I think I was able to grasp the whole WBann, except the words in bold. Could you rephrase that sentence?What I see happening (and I'm not by any means a fan of it) is that we will become increasingly reliant on simulations to prototype our work. The good part of this is that, just like the world of IC design when it went through the same shift big time a couple of decades ago, the simulators and the models will go from having a passing resemblence to how the real components work to being very, very good models of how they work and over the whole range of the principle parameters such as supply voltage and temperature.
When I first started designing ICs, I was amazed how close the simulations came to what we saw in the lab when the chip came back and today it is almost unreal.
If you wander over to EBay you can find many inexpensive adapters, such as these:True, but I've been trying to think of a way to use SOT-23 and similar SMT in a prototype environment closer to the final PCB. Some sort of solderless breadboard with clamp system like the adapters, but without the link of through hole and breadboard.
Right now, the adapters to through hole are still rather spendy, though they are down from what they cost 5 years ago.
by Don Wilcher
by Aaron Carman
by Jake Hertz