A quick and very random post, I’m working on a project that requires a microSD card, I could’ve sworn I had some microSD breakouts in my “giant tub-o-random-ebay-modules” but alas I was unable to locate any, then I realised I (like I’m sure pretty much anybody who’s bought any number of SD cards in the last decade) have a bunch of microSD to SD adapters lying around, the metal in them is kinda crap but I wonder if I can solder to it…

Turns out the answer is yes, so I bring you the “Ghetto MicroSD Breakout”, I’m sure I’m not the first to come up with this but I’ve not run across it so figured I might as well document it.

Initially I used some enamelled copper wire to connect to the pins to the contact pads, but in doing so I couldn’t help but notice the contacts looked like a standard 100mil header would fit them, turns out it does, JUST about perfectly.

Rev A on the left Rev B on the right

You’ve got to be a little bit careful soldering the two narrow pads on the right to their respective pins and you need a small piece of component lead or something to jump from the inset pad to the pin (if you’re only planning on using SPI mode you can skip that) but other than that it’s pretty much “just solder it”.