Solderless connections for IC-FPGA connection

[rsridhar]

I am working on a project that uses a FPGA demo board (DE0 Nano) to talk to an ADC and DAC.  But, being a beginner and hobbyist, I am trying to do it with solderless connections.  My main question is:  Is this crazy?

Longer story:  I am using something like this to convert the TQFP64 ADC package to DIP pins:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/365095557703

And using cheap jumper cables to connect to an FPGA:
https://a.co/d/c9DxWvZ

Power and Ground rails are on a cheap breadboard.  The max digital data rate going across the wires is 12-25MHz.  Attached is an image of the setup:

I posted this question to another forum and the general response was that this is not a good idea, and I will run into communication issues.  I was wondering if anyone would be willing to go into what some of these issues would be; and a little more detail on the cause (interconnects, length of wires, EMI, etc.).

Thanks in advance!

[EggertEnjoyer123]

It could work at 10 MHz since that is comparatively a low frequency, and if you don't care about radiated emissions you could probably try it.

The main issue is return currents. Any current going from the chip to the FPGA needs a ground wire to return back to the chip. If the loop formed by these wires is large (as it will be in your case) then it will pick up any stray magnetic fields, or it would radiate it and mess up other signals nearby. At 10 MHz you very well could get away with it though.

It's still better to make a PCB. It is quite difficult to get Verilog to work sometimes, and ideally you don't want to go on a wild goose chase with all those wires only to find out your code was broken (or vice versa)

Edit: the bigger issue is going to be decoupling capacitors. If you can't solder then close to the ADC your circuit won't work or it'll be extremely noisy.