Posts tagged ‘SchmartBoard’
I wrote a tutorial a while ago on how to hand solder fine pitched LGA/QFN chips using perfboards. While The technique illustrated works well with low pin count chips, for many people it is still a rather daunting task to solder these tiny chips that way. Also, as the pin count increases hand soldering without using a board with proper footprint becomes much harder. Continue reading ‘QFN Soldering Using SchmartBoard’ »
Neal from SchmartBoard sent me an MSP430F5172 development board to check out. This board, according to the website, was co-designed with the University of Colorado for itw educational needs. It is actually just a breakout board for TI’s MSP430F5172 mixed signal microcontroller with added power regulator circuitry and a conveniently positioned JTAG connector. Continue reading ‘SchmartBoard MSP430F5172 Development Kit’ »
Neal at Schmartboard sent me a 0.65mm pitch Arduino prototyping shield kit a few weeks ago. I had meant to do a review right away, but then thought it would probably be even better if I built a real project with this board to see how well it worked first before sharing my experience with you. Continue reading ‘Prototyping With Schmartboard Arduino Shield Board’ »
For a lot of electronics enthusiasts and DIYers, hand-soldering SMT components can be a great challenge. And given the trend of component miniaturization, a lot of ICs no longer come with DIP packaging. Soldering such small components by hand without proper equipment (e.g. SMD hot air rework station) can be extremely difficult for beginners. The folks at SchmartBoard were kind enough to send me a few of their SMT prototyping boards to play with. So I decided to try them out to see how their proto-boards stack up with some of the alternatives on the market. Continue reading ‘SchmartBoard — First Impressions’ »