TL072 substitute? (They're expensive now outside the USA)

Similar to what I said about powder coating and UV printing, I'm not planning to do fully assembled SMD PCBs... I won't have the equipment, space, or workforce to do such a thing.

But presoldered ICs that are only available in SMD format? I'm on it.... in fact, I have 377 of a particular part on the way. ;)
 
mybud said:
What about those little (scary) SOIC to through hole adapter boards? I optimistically ordered a couple and can scarcely see the little lines on them 🤨
Click to expand...

I solder those by hand right now (it's really not that bad unless you're doing hundreds), but I'll be presoldering some SOIC-28 ICs pretty soon.

I said I never would again, but maybe I lied. :ROFLMAO:
 
Robert said:
Similar to what I said about powder coating and UV printing, I'm not planning to do fully assembled SMD PCBs... I won't have the equipment, space, or workforce to do such a thing.

But presoldered ICs that are only available in SMD format? I'm on it.... in fact, I have 377 of a particular part on the way. ;)
Click to expand...
377 (just in case of an imminent contest).
 
And hey, if the through hole TL072 becomes a thing of the past we can definitely do some pre-soldered SOIC8 > DIP8 adapters, just like the MMBFJ201's.
 
mybud said:
Push comes to shove, I could get them delivered to me and then send them on to you.
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Very decent of you to offer. I have some coming from AliExpress, which I'll test. And I can probably find some somewhere for a reasonable price in the long term. But I greatly appreciate the offer, and if I can help you with any Australian thing, let me know.
 
mybud said:
What about those little (scary) SOIC to through hole adapter boards? I optimistically ordered a couple and can scarcely see the little lines on them 🤨
Click to expand...
I bought a bunch of them a while back, and my close up vision is good. I am thinking about getting some SMD 72s... I have managed to successfully put... maybe 10 or 12 SMD J201s and 5457s onto adaptor boards. EDIT: and I didn't destroy any in the process.
 
Through hole devices are still used in plenty of mission-critical applications, so I don't foresee a complete end of production of those parts. Also, the demand remains high for general purpose parts like DIP8 TL072. Right now, the Si shortages / fab concentration has led to rationing and prioritizing production. Now that production is going in the direction of less concentration and more regional fab houses are coming online, I think there's an end in sight to shortages—although the exact timeline there is probably later rather than sooner. But, I do think that niche products (e.g., dynamic processors that have the VAST majority of their application in production electronics), will see DIP package EOL for sure. There's always the possibility of companies such as Coolaudio resurrecting ancient tech and offering it to hobbyists, but there's of course a premium there.

I have no problem with surface-mount ICs / transistors, but I'd like to continue to use through-hole passives.
 
Robert said:
I think it's going to be fine. We can still get germanium transistors and diodes....when did they quit making those?
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I've heard that the USSR made literally millions of Germanium diodes to stockpile for use in radioactivity detectors / Geiger counters.
 
They're fairly tolerant to heat, not like germaniums... after all, they sit in a reflow oven at high temperature for several minutes.
 
mybud said:
What about those little (scary) SOIC to through hole adapter boards? I optimistically ordered a couple and can scarcely see the little lines on them 🤨
Click to expand...
It gets better after you do a few dozen (or a few hundred), trust me. I almost never use through hole opamps anymore, for my purposes the SMD variants are just uniformly better. Especially for onboard electronics, which is my main thing.

Those little adapter boards are very inexpensive BTW, through OSHpark they run me three for a buck, shipping included. Multiple people have shared their fabrication files there if you don't want to do the layouts yourself.
 
In terms of 'scary' — I've gotten away with soldering a 16 Pin QSOP with .8mm solder and a T18-D16 tip with some solder wick. It's really not as difficult as it might seem to be.

EDIT: And a flux pen. Definitely necessary.
 
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Nope, at some point drag soldering becomes more reasonable than pin-by-pin.

After you do it a few times you won't even think about it.

Remember the first time you ever soldered anything? That was probably a little uncomfortable too.

Start small then work your way .. uh... down.
 
The one thing I don't like about SMD ICs is that removal can be destructive to the board. It also throws the general order of operations out the window since you're soldering the SMD parts first. Typically, I like to save transistors/ICs for last.
 
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