Phyllotaxis: An audio-reactive LED display(jagi.studio) |
Phyllotaxis: An audio-reactive LED display(jagi.studio) |
A trick that poor hobbyists learn early on is to make pads a little larger than necessary for SMT parts so you've got somewhere to wick solder onto. Neopixels (5050 LEDs) are reasonable to hand-solder since the pads extend up the sides of the package, but you can also do QFNs with a bit of practice by placing a big via to get to the central pad from underneath.
Perhaps an example of convergent evolution? :)