I have moved from through-hole to SMD and almost all new projects are
designed with SMD parts in mind. In certain cases though, you cannot =
avoid
using the through-hole components either because of suitability or
availability issues.

I have a penchant for making the board as small as possible with the
components packed as tightly as possible. SMD parts give you plenty of =
scope
to achieve this. For example, two years back, I built a parallel port =
PIC
programmer (Epic), using through-hole parts. It had a single-sided PCB =
with
an 18-pin ZIF socket and header pins for ICSP. It measured 75mm x 50mm =
(3" x
2"). Last month I redesigned the board to accommodate a 40-pin ZIF =
socket.
This board is also single-sided and except for the two LEDs, connectors =
and
the ZIF socket, all are SMD parts and it measures 66mm x 40mm (2.6" x =
1.6").
It happily programs all PICs in DIP package (No. of pins: 40, 28, 18, 14 =
&
8). The ICSP connector takes care of PICS in SOIC & PLCC packages.

Since drilling is not required for SMD parts, the boards look much =
neater. I
use a 3" dia. magnifying glass in a stand, an ordinary soldering iron =
with a
fine tip and steady hands. Initially, it looked tough. But with =
practice, the
right techniques are learnt and the job becomes easier and more =
interesting.

Regards,
Bala

=20
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Picdude
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 1:22 AM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: [EE]: Through hole vs. SMD
>=20
>=20
> On Monday 22 September 2003 12:18, Alex Kilpatrick scribbled:
> > I can only speak for myself, but I started out doing=20
> through-hole, like
> > everybody  I was intimidated by SMD.  However,=20
> circumstances forced me
> > to go into SMD (I needed to do IrDA), and I will never go=20
> back.  SMD is
> > really not much harder to solder/bake than through-hole,=20
> and there are
> > many advantages:
> >
> > -  Cheaper parts
> > -  *Way* more variety of parts
> > -  Smaller size/power
> > -  Not having to do drilling (potentially)
> > -  Coolness factor  :-)
> >
> > The benefits far outweight the slight difficulty of=20
> soldering the parts.
> > I think the hobby community will *have* to move to SMD, because the
> > through-hole parts are going to eventually be obsolete, for the most
> > part.
>=20
>=20
> I'll *mostly* agree with you...  The one big advantage I see=20
> of through-hole=20
> parts is breadboardability.  Yes, there are adapter boards=20
> that can be used,=20
> but they add significant cost, and require soldering, which=20
> many newbies=20
> cannot do well.  I actually know a couple hobbyists who don't=20
> own a soldering=20
> iron and/or cannot solder.  And let's not forget that from=20
> start to working=20
> prototype, breadboarding is waaayyy faster if you don't have=20
> to solder=20
> anything to adapter boards.
>=20
> Another problem is that some manufacturers are only making=20
> SS-sized components=20
> (like the Maxim op-amp I had recently), and these are not so=20
> easy to solder=20
> onto an adapter board.
>=20
> On the bright side, just everything I build is=20
> super-space-constrained, and=20
> the SMT parts are really sweet for this purpose.
>=20
> For laughs, in my early days of electronics when drilling was=20
> a nightmare (did=20
> not have a drill press), I would breadboard with thru-hole=20
> parts, and then=20
> make them permanent by spreading the pins out and=20
> surface-mounting them to=20
> the PCB, which I laid out accordingly.  Vias were made by=20
> routing the traces=20
> to the edge of the board and jumpering wires from one side to=20
> the other.
>=20
> Cheers,
> -Neil.
>=20
> ---
> [This E-mail scanned for viruses]

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