SO packages are confusing

[tooki]

I only use the round headers on breadboards. The solder end is the side with the flat shoulder, and that pin is usually 0.6mm diameter. The plug side with the taper usually has 0.4 or 0.5mm pins, which are great for breadboards.

The only downside to the round pin headers is that they’re significantly easier to damage than the square pin ones, and being brass, you can only bend them a few times before they break off. So be careful when removing them from a breadboard so you don’t bend the pins.

Another breadboard tip: for TO-220 packages, use flat nose pliers to grasp each pin from the tip to just below where it widens, and twist 90°. This way, rather than forcing the breadboard contacts apart by the width of the pin, the contacts now only have to spread apart by the thickness of the pins.

[JenniferG]

I only use the round headers on breadboards. The solder end is the side with the flat shoulder, and that pin is usually 0.6mm diameter. The plug side with the taper usually has 0.4 or 0.5mm pins, which are great for breadboards.

The only downside to the round pin headers is that they’re significantly easier to damage than the square pin ones, and being brass, you can only bend them a few times before they break off. So be careful when removing them from a breadboard so you don’t bend the pins.

Another breadboard tip: for TO-220 packages, use flat nose pliers to grasp each pin from the tip to just below where it widens, and twist 90°. This way, rather than forcing the breadboard contacts apart by the width of the pin, the contacts now only have to spread apart by the thickness of the pins.

Thanks for the wonderful tips!   Journaling this.

[dolbeau]

I give up.. TI, in its own datasheet says the 8850 is a "Tiny MSOP-8" package.. yet in another part of the document it calls is VSSOP(

The "features" block at the beginning of a datasheet is basically a marketing blurb. Helps figure out chips from one another but not for finer details. The table with part numbers/package/body size is the more reliable bit, combined with the drawings and other technical details (pinouts, ...) is what you can rely on.

Having started to do PCBs with SMD components a couple of years ago as a hobbyist, I would advise from my experience:

(a) double-check the pinouts for the symbols in the schematic, no matter what the source
(b) double-check the land patterns in your footprint, no matter what the source
(c) double-check that the signals you see on the footprint from (b) on the PCB matches the pinouts from (a), geographically speaking, and which one is pin 1
(d) the 'check DRC' command should be used liberally

As for the footprints, as other mentioned, pre-defined footprints (even for 'standards') aren't always reliable, and some manufacturers have recommendations that slightly differ from one another or from Kicad's idea. When using a pre-defined footprint or symbols (from Kicad or from e.g. SnapEDA or similar), always double-check it against the manufacturer's datasheet. For 'standard' chip in 'standard' package, there's usually multiple packages options; when selecting one, check for availability of this specific variant, and check the datasheet/land patterns of more than one manufacturer, just in case. When in doubt, make sure the PCB as enough room to accommodate the largest 'viable' package option (both the package itself and the land patterns of the various manufacturers) - but also that you don't route so many traces underneath it that it won't accept the smallest one. For hobbyist stuff, you may find yourself redesigning the PCB and/or BoM to use a different package or manufacturer because of the chip shortage, and it's easier when there's enough room from day 1.

If you're going to solder yourself, then obviously you need to pick packages you're comfortable soldering. If you're going to pay the PCB manufacturer to solder some components, then go fairly small - smaller PCBs are cheaper, and the cost of assembly for SMD isn't higher for smaller packages as far as I can tell (up to the minimum size supported). 0603 and 0402 are perfectly fine for the cheapest PCB assembly options from the likes of SeeedStudio of JLCPCB, and so are .5mm pitch packages and even many BGAs.

[Siwastaja]

It's also totally normal to have up to 4-5 different names for the same footprint even within the same datasheet!

If the part is available in 5 different packages, each with 3 different names, all this in the same datasheet, you easily get mentally overloaded, but in principle, the only task to do is mentally map from order number to the drawing, this is all that matters: find the right drawing for the part you are going to order. Forget everything else, like trying to relate to other products with same or similar footprint name. It doesn't matter.