Well shit.

I got the parts I ordered from DigiKey. I didn't realize how small they were. I've soldered SMT parts before, but I don't know if I have a steady enough hand to do these ones by hand. 🙁

Good thing I only ordered a few.

What if the reason we've never seen a time traveler isn't because it's impossible, but because humanity is going to wipe itself out before anyone figures out how?

So, I was bemoaning the fact that finding chips in a DIP format is getting harder and harder because everything's moving to SMT. I don't hate SMT chips, but they make it rather difficult to play with them on a breadboard before using them in a project.

It just occurred to me that if I'm going to the trouble of designing a PCB in the first place, nothing stops me from sticking a single chip on a PCB with a bunch of pin headers to turn it into a quick and dirty "DIP chip" for experimenting with on a breadboard. I can even do this with a bunch of different chips on a single PCB that breaks out into multiple different units.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to have thought of this, but it was definitely an "aha" moment for me.