justDIY said:
I have some of these chips, but currently lack the nerve to try hand soldering them to a pcb.
Thats how i felt for a long time, its actually quite easy!
I just cover all the pads in solder, wick it off using braid, then position the chip with tweezers.
Then all you need to do is heat up one pad (no more solder required) now heat up a pad that is on a side perpendicular to the one you just did, repeat the process until you have heated a single pad on each side of the square chip.
Now the chip is stuck down, you may add more solder where required, or just keep heating the small deposits of solder that you put on the pads if there is enough left.
imo it makes board layout so much easier than the dual in line packages, and much smaller.
Anyway back to the ICSP.
the way i read it, also leads me to believe that it doesnt work out of the box. How stupid are they?
That would mean that you would have to include two icsp headers on a board using a tqfp device.
If these pins are nc normally, why wouldnt they allways just work in ICSP mode?