MOTM

Just my $0.02 worth:

> What is your "comfort zone" is handling/soldering these parts? Not talking ALL
> parts on the
> board, maybe 2 ICs out of 8.

I've never tried soldering surface-mount chips. How tricky are these parts
to work with? Can I solder them with my little Weller WLC 100 cheapie
soldering station? It worked fine for those closely spaced leads in the -300
kit.

> Or....what if I could go "all DIP" but the price of the kit was $30 more?
> Worth $30 to have all
> DIP?

$30 for all-DIP would be worth it if not going all-DIP meant having to buy
new tools. I bet I'll have to buy one of those illuminated magnifiers to
solder leads with 0.05 spacing, and that's about $30 x 3. OTOH if you can
ONLY get the parts in surface mount, then that's not really a choice, eh?

What about the pricing of the "semi-kits"? Or what about semi-kits in which
only the tricky parts are soldered?

--Adam