Cost efficient prototyping for component testing

[MEturnedEE]

Hi there, I'm hoping to get some best practises on prototyping in order to test various components in an audio circuit. Specifically, we have some voltage regulators in some very small packages that are too small to hand solder. What are options to test these, if they do not come with any eval kit/dev board?

 

[d123]

Hi,

A close alternative is to find the Spice models and recreate the actual audio circuit as faithfully as will fit the simulator. If the results look believable/are actually credible, then the next step is presumably PCB design, or paying a person to do it for you, and then sending the design off for a few populated boards from one of those production houses that offer 10 or 3 or whatever for x $, which I think you can do (have them place the parts and solder for you) - not sure minimum quantity.

 

[asdf44]

PCB's can be had really cheap (<$50) from a few different places. I've used ExpressPCB a lot, and now we've done some boards with easyeda.com

However we usually manually assembly such boards in house. My understanding is that assembly is in the $100's minimum.

Note that equipment to support pretty tiny assembly isn't that expensive and doesn't take a tremendous amount of experience. By studying youtube videos and buying perhaps $1k in equipment you'd be able to do most types of small components in house.

See this for example for heating a board for BGA's:
https://www.circuitspecialists.com/bk7000.html