Can anyone recoomend a manufacturer of *solderless* TSSOP to DIP adapters for breadboard evaluation?

Thanks

Mr.GoKiiid

 

I am pretty sure they dont exist because surface mount chips must have solder to hold them on the board.

The closest thing you will be able to find are evaluation boards for certain ICs from companies where the IC is mounted on a small PCB with through hole pins in a DIP configuration. Some online robot stores also do that, but only for a select few ICs.

The other way is to just buy the adapters available and lay the IC down on the pads without solder (and maybe a dab of super glue or tape to keep the IC in place. I don't know how reliable that is though. Also, adapters are not cheap and can cost more than the IC itself. THis will only work for prototyping. Any jerk of the board could throw the alignment off and destroy the things in your circuit.

For a finished project, there's no way around it, you need to solder surface mount ICs at some point. If you are asking for a through-hole method to use surface mount ICs without having to surface mount solder, there is none- learn to solder surface mount chips.

 

you need a "programming adapter" or "development socket" ... be prepared to spend BIG BUCKS on one.

t/ssop to dip:
http://www.logicalsys.com/ssop-adapter.asp

more choices:
http://www.epboard.com/eproducts/pgtestadapter.htm

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Not exactly what you asked for but there are special test clips for most ICs. Pomona makes lots of these. http://www.pomonaelectronics.com/ind...P&getDetails=2
this might work ok for proof of concept but has lots of drawbacks, especially for analog and high speed datacomm. They work great for ICSP programming of PICs and other uCs since you just clip on rather than build in a programming header.

I think that going with out solder will be an exercise in frustration. Intermittents will drive you crazy.

by the way, soldering SMDs is really pretty easy. start with SOICs and 1206s. move on to ssops and such. you will be suprised how easy it it.

 

I have not tried to solder SMDs yet, do you have any hints?

eg. how do you hold the IC in place until the first lead is soldered?

Do you need to tin the IC legs first? Or do you just apply the soldering iron and solder to the pin?

I believe it has to be done quickly to avoid overheating.

Any help will be appreciated.

__________________
Len

 

You need a good pair of tweezers to hold the IC in place for soldering the first two pins individually and this is when any overheating is likely to occur. WHen you start dragging it's pretty hard to overheat the IC:

1. Line the IC up properly.
2. Add flux to a corner pin
3. manually solder one corner pin the way you would normally
4. Make sure it's lined up properly
5. add flux to the opposite corner pin
6. manually solder that pin in
7. now place a row of flux down each side of pins
8. dab a bead of solder on the tip of your iron and drag it down one side
9. repeat step 8 for each side. make sure to have lots of flux

If your iron is lucky enough to have a "spoon" tip available it can make it easier. Its an iron tip where the tip is a hollowed out a bit and makes it so you can hold more solder more easily for dragging.

This method does not work with BGAs where some of the connection are under the chip. Only works when the connections are on the side.

This drag method is the easiest, most effective and cheapest way since you don't need a reflow oven or hot air or anything. It's also more reliable and faster than soldering each pin one by one...that sucks.

Here is a guide:
http://www.circuittechctr.com/guides/7-0.shtml

Here is a video (but this one is using an iron tip with the hollow in the middle to make it easier):
http://www.howardelectronics.com/jbc/dragsoldering.wmv

*Continuous flow in this guide refers to the drag solder method I outlined above. Point-to-point is each and every pin manual and hot-air is hot-air.

QUESTION TO OTHERS:
Why does this drag method work exactly? It doesn't seem to require heating up the pins and the pad like in through-hole soldering which was a critical part of through-hole soldering success.. I'm also curious if the solder is able to get underneath the pin and form a bond between the pad and pin. It just seems to coat the top of the pin.

 

edit: d*mn, dk, yah beat me by 3 minutes....

use liquid flux on the pads and the IC pins. put a little solder on a corner pad. using tweezers or a hemostat (good tool for this), hold theIC in place and apply the solder iron to the lead over the tinned pad. Once it flows (1-2 seconds max), take the soldering iron away and let it cool. Make sure the chip is properly aligned and then solder the rest of the pins, starting on the opposite side. Finally retouch the first pin with the iron. use solder wick to clear any bridges. clean off the flux and admire your work.

 

This issue arose for me in trying to find a DIP clock distribution controller (CDC) which seems to be obsolete (digikey, Mouser, etc). If anyone knows where I can get one please post. I have a single 800KHz crystal source that I want to distribute to four other ICs.

 

just make a little board that takes the surface mount pins to properly spaced header pins (100mil x what ever the width). assuming you have a SMD chip that meets your needs.

 

Farnell in the UK http://uk.farnell.com have a TSSOP to DIP adapter - order no. 4507897 for £20.

 

check out the "EconOscilator" from Dallas ... 4khz to 133mHz programmable ... they used to come in a TO-92 package, but it seems now they only come in so8?! but so8 isn't so bad to solder.

I'm using one to run 4 pics at 20mHz

http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/tim...oscillator.cfm

__________________
If you don't have a planet, what good are gold bars?

want to contact me directly? gmail gordonthree
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You are right, I'm lame when it comes to that soldering SM chips. Here's an idea: buy the PCB board adapter at logicsys or other sites and simple glue the IC to it in the proper condiguration. Or tie it down with a breadtie or electrical tape. That won't be too thermally inappraopriate will it?

 

Perhaps a VERY small dab of superglue under the chip and press it down to the adapter board (make sure it's perfectly aligned, you only have one chance). Use very little glue so that when it presses down it doesn't smear onto the pads or pins...that's catastrophic. The problem with ohly using glue is the electrical connection may not be good enough.

Then if you want to maybe do the drag-soldering after you finish gluing. That shouldn't be too hard to pick up on. You could do it without the superglue if you manually solder two opposite corners of the IC first to hold it in place like outlined in earlier instructions.

A bread-tie won't work because the slightest movement will throw it out of alignment and cause shorts and other mishaps in your circuit. Tape might, but with tape the IC can still jiggle around, especially stretchy, gunky electrical tape. Plus, the tape is opaque black- you have no way of seeing if the chip is still in alignment (or if it ever was).

 

someone mentioned in another thread, prototyping adapters for smt packages, where each pad was set into the substrate material, instead of the other way around (copper pad on top of substrate) ... a board like that might work with your glue idea.

but as "runny" as superglue is, I think you'll end up with a nice acrylic insulation layer under all your connectors and have the chip permantly glued down to boot.

learning to solder smts is your only viable solution ... buy a bunch of cheap logic chips (74F series should come in real small packages) to practice on ... if you buy some good quality prototyping boards, they should survive repeated solder / desolder events.

__________________
If you don't have a planet, what good are gold bars?

want to contact me directly? gmail gordonthree
check out my project website: http://projects.dimension-x.net
Favorite numbers:
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

 

Thanks dknguyen and the others who responded. Could I modify a soldering iron tip by drilling to make it a a "spoon" tip?

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Len