Cason said:
Dumb question..... Whats the difference between and SO and DIP package?
Will an SO work in a breadboard?
Not a traditional breadboard with the 0.1" plug holes.
To "breadboard" SO chips you'll need an SO-DIP converter board, but
that is pointless if you can buy the DIP version of the chip.
You can get ZIF (Zero Insersion Force) sockets for SO chips, but they
aren't cheap.
Generally speaking, SO (SMD) chips and components are only for putting
on PCBs. You can get "general purpose" SMD boards, kind of like
vero-board, but you have to solder the chip on and then solder
connections etc - yuck.
When I googled it, it came up with "resembling a flat pack with leads on two
sides." That seemed pretty DIP sounding to me... Are they SMT?
Yes they are surface mount(SMD). Technically they are still DIP (Dual
in-line package), but they are a surface mount version as opposed to a
through-hole version which the term DIP generally refers to these
days.
Regards
Dave