Breakout PCBs have been a major theme in this project.  It has really upped my game to have more modules and conversion PCBs - many of which I didn't realize I needed in my toolkit.  Honestly, I'm surprised more of these aren't already available.  But *shrug* gotta make it happen either way!

The MCP4661 digipot breakouts came out beautifully - and they work 100% perfect too, address changes and all :)

I made about a dozen different FPC -> 2.54mm designs so I'll have lots of flexibility prototyping.  Forgot to put the version silk on top (it's underneath) but these are otherwise quite ideal.  I used a new trick to help with soldering high-pitch pins and the MHP30 mini hotplate really does wonders for assembly on these. 

Here's one with my finger for scale:

Sure beats the ugly ol' breakouts I've been using up to now!

Additionally I've been excited about using some fancy round LCD gauges for this project. The GC9A01 by WaveShare is an ideal candidate here, but the only touch screen variant (also 5V level shifter) I could find has a frustratingly crappy cable harness with a very uncommon JST-GH13 connector (1.25mm pitch)....

Notice the female breadboard contacts (!?) all split and bent into tangly curves.  Ew, no thanks!

Time to breakout! (le freak, c'est chic-- yes, the inside of my head is an interesting place :P)

Ah, much better!  Now we have a nice pluggable FPC-12 1.0mm to work with ^_^

note, I can get away with using a 12-pin connector since MISO is unused (output from the display to the controller).

[to be continued...]