Budgetronics through holes pins for a ZIF socket are too narrow

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cde
Posts: 11
Joined: 13 Sep 2020, 08:37

Budgetronics through holes pins for a ZIF socket are too narrow

Post by cde »

I have bought a TEXTOOL 40-pin ZIF socket as the FAQ https://gigatron.io/?page_id=160 suggests. The problem is, the PCB sold by budgetronics.eu has small through holes that are too narrow for the TEXTOOL pins which are a bit wide. Is this a regression compared to the PCB sold by gigatron directly? The image below shows the pins of a standard ZIF socket.

Walter, if by any chance you have the reference of a 40-pin wide ZIF socket with small pins I'd be interested.
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walter
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Posts: 160
Joined: 13 May 2018, 08:00

Re: Budgetronics through holes pins for a ZIF socket are too narrow

Post by walter »

I'm not sure if there are ZIF sockets with smaller pins. I have a few, that have pins that just fit in the holes. You need some force to get it into the board, and the pins need to be perfectly aligned in order to get it in. AFAIK the Budgetronics PCB is the open hardware version of the board, with has the same holes as what we used to include in the kit.
alastair
Posts: 68
Joined: 10 Oct 2019, 14:28

Re: Budgetronics through holes pins for a ZIF socket are too narrow

Post by alastair »

I've had this same issue with a board I designed. I checked the kicad files and the Gigatron is using the standard 0.8mm drill size on the 40-pin DIP. The ZIF socket pins are also 0.8mm, so this can be a problem depending on the tolerances of the PCB.

I was able to insert the socket in the first batch of my boards, but it was really tight. The hot-air solder leveling on the second batch was thicker and this made it impossible to insert the socket. I am using a 32-pin DIP, so I can imagine a 40-pin would be even harder.

All is not lost though. The ZIF socket pins are flat and you only need to widen the holes in one direction. I did not have a file small enough, so I forced a pin off a damaged ZIF socket in to each hole one at a time. This was just enough to widen the holes and allow the socket to fit (later revisions of my board switched 0.9mm holes).
cde
Posts: 11
Joined: 13 Sep 2020, 08:37

Re: Budgetronics through holes pins for a ZIF socket are too narrow

Post by cde »

Thanks Walter, alastair. I had the idea of using a dremel to make the pins less wide. However something better came up: I found this ZIF socket https://cpc.farnell.com/aries/40-6554-1 ... dp/SC06493 (ARIES 40-6554-10) which unlike the TEXTOOL has small pins that fit perfectly in the PCB. I also prefer the color black which goes along well with the black PCB sold by Budgetronics.
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walter
Site Admin
Posts: 160
Joined: 13 May 2018, 08:00

Re: Budgetronics through holes pins for a ZIF socket are too narrow

Post by walter »

Great solution!
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