SMA to Whatever
August 8, 2024
Today on Stupid Solutions to Stupid Problems – a postage stamp sized PCB for putting an SMA port on, well, whatever.
Several times on recent projects I’ve had to try to pass RF around between boards that don’t have footprints for coaxial connectors. I’ve tried various methods such as just soldering a bit of micro-coax to the board or using 0.1″ headers but none of them are satisfactory.
Recently I damaged a 20W amplifier attempting to solder an SMA connection to a footprint that wasn’t meant for one. While debugging and repairing that board I had an epiphany – why not just make a tiny adapter board? So that’s what I did.
It’s a tiny PCB with an SMA footprint on one end and a 0.1″ header footprint on the other. Now I can put an SMA connector anywhere I please.
I made some extras for anyone that needs one (or a few) and of course the design is open source.
73, AI6YM