<i>But perhaps the largest hurdle is that most of the chips are surface mount devices.</i><p>This used to be a deterrent for me, but these days I just whip out my ExpressPCB and make a breakout board for the part that I&#x27;m interested in playing with. The price is really manageable. Typically my breakout board includes a few basic goodies such as decoupling caps, and a 3.3 V regulator.<p>But I appreciate the simplicity of being able to just breadboard something.<p><i>One reason that this works so well is the chip has a built-in serial bootloader.</i><p>That&#x27;s a nice touch.