> or does anyone else have any ideas of how I can use this chip without
> investing in expensive SM soldering equipment?

I sell the chip itself. I have prepared an adapter board to wide 32-dip
format (houses the FT, eeprom, 2 resistors and a few caps, access to all
pins), and an interface board (complete USB-connector to asynch-TTL
interface). The dip32 board will be available in a few weeks. The
USB-to-TTL too, but I have a few available now.

I have soldered these PCBs succesfully with a regular soldering iron
(1mm at the tip). The important things for soldering this chip are: thin
solder wire, de-soldering braid, and (most important) a good maginifying
glass. Compared to these items the soldering iron itself is much less
important.

One customer has sent me a jpeg of an FT232BM chip that he soldered onto
wires. No PCB involved at all, and it worked. I don't suggest this for
everyone (IIRC he was a HAM-type, those guys sure know how to use a
soldering iron).

Wouter van Ooijen

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Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
consultancy, development, PICmicro products

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