SMD-to-DIP Adapter: Pin Soldering “Fixture”

I needed a rail-to-rail op amp in a DIP package to breadboard the amplifier for those toroids and came up dry, so I sawed out a protoboard square, glued a MAX4330 in SOT23-5 atop it in classic dead-bug style, rearranged the leads into the standard DIP pinout, and moved on:

MAX4330 dead-bug style on DIP adapter
MAX4330 dead-bug style on DIP adapter

The trick to getting the header pins aligned is to stick ’em in a pile of perfboards, which instantly makes them stand up straight and parallel:

img_3430 - SMD-to-DIP adapter - PCB soldering fixture
img_3430 – SMD-to-DIP adapter – PCB soldering fixture

Stick the square adapter atop the headers, solder all eight pins, glue down the SOT23, and solder it with wire-wrap snippets. Ugly, but workable…

3 thoughts on “SMD-to-DIP Adapter: Pin Soldering “Fixture”

  1. These are available commercially (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/717) but I totally understand the need to get something done instead of wait days for parts to be delivered. I still stuff my headers into the breadboards to align them, even though I have to solder ’em quickly to avoid damaging my breadboard. As it happens, the worst heat-damaged breadboard I have was melted by a very unhappy TTL chip (which still worked afterward, amazingly).

    1. Those are cute little gizmos, but this circuit really cries out for a clean PCB layout: shuffling millivolt signals around on a solderless breadboard just doesn’t work well at all.

      Must. Resist. Temptation.

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