| General > General Technical Chat |
| Come in through-hole components your time is up! |
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| badvoc:
Hi All, My username is Badvoc, i am a new member to this forum, it's great to be here :-+ I was just wondering what the forums views are on through-hole components are? Do we think these types of components are going to be phased out in the future in favor of Surface Mount or the next new thing. And will this spell the end of hobbyist electronics for some people in the future? I have yet to attempt using Surface Mount components and still rely on breadboards and prototyping boards for my projects and tinkering about, so i try and keep a good stock of though-hole parts, but i haven't yet noticed any difficulty in obtaining these components, what is everyone else's experience or views on this subject? Thanks for reading Badvoc |
| Monkeh:
What do you mean, phased out in the future? They were phased out 20 years ago. |
| JoeN:
For ICs, they are all but phased out as the above poster said. Get used to surface mount, even if you are a hobbyist. DIP Trace and OSHPark are your friends. Other components, such as jacks, are through hole and will stay that way for mechanical strength. Nobody is going to mount a 1 pound transformer on a PCB without fasteners, for example, it would peel away with the first one inch drop. You still see some through-hole power transistors and the like, but there are surface packages taking over for this as well. This surface package from Fairchild is so sexy (and such good specs): I think a lot of the older similar through-hole parts are less expensive and get used under many circumstances because of price. |
| hans:
Through hole is already of the past. In some applications still preferred though, like connectors for rigidity, although in consumer products this is also more often not the case (because cost). Just learn to use surface mount. If through hole never existed we wouldn't know better. I think the hobby will not die out if there are still plenty of people that are able and willing to learn the new technologies (albeit at a lower pace or delayed compared to industry). And SMT is very accessible for hobbyists. If it is still too difficult, there is still a whole range of cheap boards on Ebay, Adafruit, SparkFun etc. with lots of fun chips already connected. Just a few pin headers and wires and you're up and running. |
| Rerouter:
For ic's, sure, for high power active devices and large wattage / larger capacitance /inductance you are still in the relm of through hole to even chassis mount. Each has there role, but i agree there is less and less need to use them as computing trends towards lower power and our switching devices become more effective. |
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