:: Also, damnit because they're only SSOP With a small amount of practice, it is not that hard to hand solder SOIC or SSOP. Tools - preferably a ' hoof ' bit - these have a little well on the underside and a small reservoir of solder gets capillaried into it - but an ordinary small /fine flat bit will work. Some form of lighting and a magnifying glass - depends on your eyesight, lighting with no shadows most important. Fine solder 0.6mm or less. The hobby way of doing this would be to make sure the pads on the PCB are clean and swipe a then even layer of solder over one each of pins on opposite of each other. In other words pad one and pad 14 if that is top left and bottom right, carefully place chip on pads, make sure the bit has plenty of solder on it, apply gentle pressure to top of chip (making sure it doesn't move) then dab gently the iron onto one of the pads prepared above, once done do the other pad. Then at leisure solder the rest of the pads - might be an idea to alternate the sides that you are soldering to let the joint cool down a bit. If you are lucky and can find someone who can let you have some nice jelly flux (hard to get these days Farnell still have some, NOT plumbers jelly flux), squirt it over the pads (it uses a syringe) be quite liberal, then if you've a hoof bit, ply it with solder and then you can just drag the bit down the pins, the flux will help keep the chip in place and cause the solder to only run onto the pin and pad. As they say in the west country 'Job Done! '. You may also need narrow desoldering braid, just to tidy up small solder whiskers - magnifying glass/lamp/microscope of benefit here. It wouldn't pass class 3 soldering work, but that won't be a problem for you. Colin -- cdb, colin@btech-online.co.uk on 17/03/2009 Web presence: www.btech-online.co.uk Hosted by: www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=7988359 -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist