Markus’ Blog

These days some of the coolest ICs are only available in SMD packages, e.g.

• the fast SSP FRAM FM25256B-G and
• the famous USB to RS232 converter chip FT-232.

For me as a hobbyist that’s a problem, because I don’t have the equipment to etch PCBs, and I want to develop my circuits on breadboards.

Fortunately there are some SMD adapter boards available. So yesterday I soldered two SSOP-28 chips on adapter boards. Soldering with a pin distance of 0.65mm is a challenging task – and for me it’s definitely the limit. Using good and thin solder (0.5mm) and a soldering rod with a very thin tip are two of the most important premises. Another one is a tremble-free hand.

What I do not like about the SSOP-28 adapters though, is that there are two rows of pins on each side of the chip. This is not good for breadboards. But hey: it’s still lots better than SMD.

For SOIC-8 however, I am very happy that I found better adapter boards. When assembled, the SMD chip can be used like an ordinary DIL-8. The adapter boards are available in Germany from W2micro. They are cheap, and they come complete with double sided SIL sockets and even with SMD capacitors. Thumbs up for this solution. The guys from W2micro really saved my day.

Do  you know about other great SMD solutions? Let me know in the comments.

I am still not sure what project to use my rgb 7-segment display for. There were some very interesting ideas posted to the Hackaday forum. I like matthiasrs idea most: A 2-digit clock, using the red LEDs for hours, the green ones for minutes and the blue ones for seconds.

In order to get a better idea, rather then implementing it in hardware I wrote a little simulation as Java applet. Have a look and see how hard or easy it is to identify the time

RGB 7-segment display

7-segment LEDs are available in red, green, yellow and blue (maybe even in white?). There don’t seem to be any in RGB though, so if you want to dynamically use different colors in your project you either have to use multiple devices or use a different technology.

So this seemed like an opportunity for a nice DIY project: Why not take an existing 7-segment display, remove the original LEDs and add some RGB ones? (continue reading…)

Today I started my new blog.  I would like to post about my DIY projects, as well as about my software project JavE.