whisky-dave wrote:
On Tuesday, 5 February 2019 14:20:25 UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

yes I've noticed, you can get SOIC to DIP but they can be expensive
sometimes far more than the chip itself. The real problems comes with the
square packages which are almost impossible to prototype or hand solder,
especailly when the pads are under the chip.

Not if you buy from our Chinese friends:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/GREA...954112517.html
(and a million different variations on the same)

Square packages not a problem either:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/0-8-...774086808.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5PCS...516670532.html
(soldering with hot air and paste isn't too hard when you get used to it)

[PCBs]
Yes those cost even put us off at uni. it's only really worth doing if
yuo want loads of same tyoe of boards.

As I mentioned upthread, $2 for 10off 100x100mm 1.6mm thick, jlcpcb.com If
you pay the extra $20 for express shipping, they come in just over a week.
We have a batch system - once a week/fortnight/month, collect up all the
boards and send them as one order with express shipping.

(the $2 is a loss leader, when you start tweaking the parameters it gets a
bit more realistic but still insanely cheap - like $12 - for a stack of
boards)

You will have to have the argument with your accounts department about
paying by credit card, since the Chinese supplier is not going to give you a
credit account.

Our PCBs are made using a CNC machine to route out the copper.
LPKF S103
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJr2aZRREmA

think it was about £10K then a comnpressor for another £3K.

We have one of those (Bungard CCD). It's a pain to set up, hopeless at
doing anything fine pitch, double sided is annoying, and you don't get
soldermask which is critical for surface mount soldering. It's not really
got used for very much, especially now you can get very high quality
boards from China for so little.

Theo