I think I have bitten off more than I can chew.
![](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/?action=dlattach;attach=1235957;image)
OK, not really but I am going to get some chewing practice. I don't have a problem with 0.5mm pitch parts in QFP form, but I've found the 0.5 mm leadless packages a bit intimidating. You've only got to look at that package to figure out why. I've been meaning to find something cheap in QFN that I can get some soldering (reflow) practice with. There are quite a lot of relatively inexpensive MCUs in small QFN packages but none of them are MCU architectures I'm set up to use and I don't really want to set up a toolchain, programming tools etc. just for some soldering practice. The thing is through, you want something you can actually test once you're done.
I finally hit on the ideal part when I was looking to order some 74x595 shift registers the other day. NXP have a 74LVC595 in a 16 pin 2.5 x 3.5mm package (that's it 'dead bug' above). They are £0.097 each + VAT in pack quantity 15, and you're not going to care about scrapping a few 11.64p parts. It's testable as it's easy to daisy chain as many shift registers as you like and the parallel part of the IC is perfectly capable of driving an LED. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else is thinking of dipping their toes into the water like me.