Buying pre-soldered Proffie breakout boards and adapter boards? Or group buy?

Proffieboards
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I saw there was a really cool Proffie test rig detailed here:

https://fredrik.hubbe.net/lightsaber/v5/test_rig.html

However, it needs a couple of PCBs - specifically the breakout board, and two of the adapter boards (Sorry, it won’t let me paste URLs for those).

The breakout boards needs a bunch of SMD components soldered to it - I don’t have access to a reflow oven, soldering tweezers, or a SMD rework station (not to mention the skills/experience, to do this confidently/reliably). And honestly, even for the other parts, I would definitely prefer somebody experienced to do the soldering, considering I’m using this to test other things :smile:.

Does anybody know if there’s anybody selling pre-soldered (at least the SMD parts) breakout boards? Or any way to buy a ready-made Proffie breakout boards/adapter boards?

Or is there any interest in some kind of group buy (JLCPCB, PCBWay etc.) to have ready-made boards done?

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You can use a hot-air solder station or an electric frying pan.
The electric frying pans costs 20-30 dollars, but the hot-air station is better if you make a mistake and need to fix/change something. For hot-air station recommendations, see this thread: The hot-air conundrum I have both, but I use the hot-air station more than the frying pan. (Not because the frying pan is bad, but because the hot-air station is set up and ready to go at any time.)

I use SMD because it’s easier and less work than through-hole components.
It’s only difficult when the components are tiny. The smallest component on the breakout board is 0603, which is is large enough to be fairly easy to do. (I designed it to be easy to assemble.)

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PS: Soldering 0603 component with a soldering iron is also possible. You just need to have good pointy tip, and a pointy stick or something to hold the component in place while soldering. Some form of magnification is also helpful.

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I still use the ‘tuck it under a blanket’ technique for 0603s.

Use masking tape to go half way up the resistor, then tape it in place with one side and pad exposed. Solder. Remove tape, solder other pad.

You have to clean up little where the tape was, but there’s no fidgeting with the thing.

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If you plan on doing more SMD components hot air is definitely worth it though. If not, then yeah you can get away with an iron and a steady* hand. +1 for blanket method.

*My hands love to jitter and I’ve no issue with 0402s, so steady ish.

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