SMD to through hole adapter boards for breadboarding: where to get?

[andrejr]

Hi everyone!

Where do you get your SMD to through hole adapter boards for breadboarding? Do you get ready-made ones, or do you custom order them from the Chinese PCB suppliers?

If you do order them, do you maybe have a collection of pre-drawn boards or at least gerbers?

[RoGeorge]

Sometimes I DIY them, though might take a lot of time:
https://hackaday.io/project/7574-the-devil-is-in-the-details/log/26074-diy-breadboard-friendly-soic-breakout-boards

[moffy]

I just get mine from Ebay e.g.: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/304674859743?itmmeta=01HXKCTGYNZRJP5KA2KHDJ63WN&hash=item46f0096adf:g:vZwAAOSwa0NjVkzD&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4HgAnUbN0MYQ%2F%2BZBI9ygPAgK4icW%2BK1lx78F37JFsCDT7ziy1gdxqYjGi%2BaMrKoz7eViW7fxppcjgGNxQ7PaAQzGHA224jeR6JgLCqeTr3lc%2F8TE51gcBcu8wyCT3lMooON%2BkNHDdptDpZ1QIt0On2iWCWNTe7CBOdImvfvi%2B2p5s%2BLyOuu6MxVlFXBcGW15BQxWUa9vVXGzcnPY0c%2BpL71fJ71RqPATg2hPrEhTbk5cdPceqQw7mA4OQEhibe4AVQRTTdh%2F7iGT5EB9c4MQB8E6U7Hd9AkDCtKxoOwu4UjX%7Ctkp%3ABFBMto_q7Oxj

[mikeselectricstuff]

Search "smd pcb" on Aliexpress

[tggzzz]

My preference is to use the commercial products shown near the bottom of https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/2020/07/22/prototyping-circuits-easy-cheap-fast-reliable-techniques/

If using breakout boards, I would try to find some with pads for an on-board decoupling capacitor (unlike those shown).

Beware of surprising issues with solderless breadboards, e.g. https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/2024/03/16/practical-traps-with-a-one-transistor-audio-amplifier-solderless-breadboards-and-oscilloscopes/

[shapirus]

Aliexpress, mostly, but some footprints are either hard to find or so unexpectedly expensive that it may be quite reasonable to quickly design and order what you need at a PCB fab house (may well turn out faster and cheaper!). In that case it may make sense to add e.g. bypass capacitor footprints to them, especially if you need boards for different parts with standard pinouts where the location of the VCC and GND pins is the same. Adding bypass caps to generic adapter boards is a PITA.

[PeteH]

There are some.on digikey as well, Chip Quik, example:
https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/chip-quik-inc/PA0087/5014718

KiCAD has libraries for a ton of SMD, you could put some together if you wanted to save money but had time to burn.

[Psi]

+1 for Aliexpress

[pcprogrammer]

Yep Aliexpress.

Check out the links below for examples.

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32765702349.html
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/10000000833958.html
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005005769312867.html

[shabaz]

Just in case it's useful, I have two personal designs that I use a lot, one for SOIC and the other for TSSOP. They are about 1" by 1.25" in size, so they are slightly squarer than most breakout boards, meaning there is some space for SMD discretes on top too. I think there's some features on these boards which are quite convenient, but I'm biased.

I ordered 50 of each (for $10.40 per 50 at the time), so that will last me ages, and that also ended up cheaper than AliExpress ready-made breakout boards probably.

I tried to create an all-in-one board, but I don't recommend it, because of the hassle of cutting it. For SOIC and TSSOP (which are the better of the layouts on that all-in-one board anyway, the rest are pretty average), it's convenient and cheaper to order them as separate boards.

[exmadscientist]

TI has some nice little kits with good variety all in one package: see https://www.ti.com/tool/DIP-ADAPTER-EVM and others

They're not as cheap as some or as nice as others, but TI parts are everywhere so they're super easy to tack on to an order you're already making.

[tggzzz]

These protoboards look pretty well thought out: you can add multiple SMD components in series/parallel with the IC pins, plus a few "random" components. I might even buy some

I would prefer a more complete ground plane, but there will always be tradeoffs in protoboards.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_ssn=jon_newcomb

One example, click to embiggen

[kimballa]

I second the DIP-ADAPTER-EVM recommendation above... If you need a handful of each of the various sizes it contains, it's actually not bad bang for the buck. Digikey carries them so you can add it to an existing order for your other parts pretty easily. Don't forget to order a hundred or so cuttable pin headers too. (TE Connectivity MPN 5-146850-1. The price is per pin so dial up the quantity before you order... they'll come on a long row and you can cut between them with snips or grab a pair of adjacent pins with two needle nose pliers and rotate 180 degrees.)

Digikey or Mouser have a selection of other breakouts for particular package sizes; search for the "dip adapter" category.

If you need a lot, make your own. Jlcpcb will fab you a 5 pk of a 100x100mm pcb for $2 plus about $20 shipping to the US. You can use that 100mm^2 space to make a panel, which is good for about a 4x5 grid of SOIC breakouts or a vast array of SOT-23 or smaller. Combined with the five board minimum, that'll set you up with a lifetime supply of your chosen size. Or mix and match; I made a panel of alternating rows of SOIC-14 and SOIC-16 at one point.

You can do this in kicad; get the kikit plugin, which will help you with auto-panelization and making mouse bites.