IC sockets on Manhattan style PCB projects?

[Chris Wilson]

 I know there are plenty of fellow home builders
here. I have built a few projects Manhattan style on single or double
sided PCB. When using IC's I have mounted them upside down, their
grounded legs helping support them. This works fine, but changing a
failed one is a PITA. Has anyone devised a neat way of using them on
ground plane PCB, but in sockets, the correct way up? Flat or turned
pin sockets have short legs, I am musing on how to extend the grounded
pins neatly. A commercially made male / female turned pin "extender"
would be ideal. Making something like that in quantity is more
watchmaker or jeweler than automotive engineer

In a similar vein, what means has anyone used to mount terminal
sockets on ground plane? I have lots of the tow and three pin PCB
mount screw sockets for conventional through hoe PCB's, but a means of
using them neatly on ground plane board is welcome! Or an alternative.

I am inspired by the clinically clean W1VD work, but am some way away
from achieving anything remotely as elegant!

http://www.w1vd.com/137-500Phasingexciter.html

[sunnyhighway]

For The ICs I would use two IC sockets (with flat legs) per IC, stacked on top each other.

Bottom socket:
 - remove ungrounded pins from the bottom socket where clearance with the top socket becomes an issue.
 - bend remaining legs outward and solder to ground plane.
 
Top socket:
 - bend used legs outward and solder to circuit.
 - optionally, remove unused pins for easier IC insertion/extraction.

IC:
 - bend (or cut) unused legs.

[Chris Wilson]

That's a good concept, I also considered using a socket that was longer than required (excess pins) and using the end ones to anchor it to the ground plane, as well as using those that were needed as an IC ground. Then mount the IC in the middle of the socket. That would limit me to flat pin sockets, and maybe introduce some unwanted  capacitance effects from the proximity of component pins to the ground plane? Thanks "sunnyhighway"

[sync]

I bend the pins of an IC socket. Solder it SMD like on a small piece of perfboard. Then these can be mounted/soldered on the main PCB. Works well and they can be easily removed too.

Sorry for the crappy picture.

[Gyro]

It goes a little against the Manhattan style, but the other thing you can do is mount the ICs or sockets THROUGH the board.

Just drill 1mm holes for the legs using a bit of clamped matrix board as a guide and countersink the holes for the non-grounded pins on the copper side. Then do Manhattan style wiring on the copper side as normal.

There should be enough grounded and decoupled supply pins to hold the IC or socket in place. Even without sockets it's much easier to remove an IC without messing up the wiring.

[Chris Wilson]

Some neat ideas here, thanks gentlemen! Appreciated.

[SaabFAN]

I bend the pins of an IC socket. Solder it SMD like on a small piece of perfboard. Then these can be mounted/soldered on the main PCB. Works well and they can be easily removed too.

Sorry for the crappy picture.

That looks pretty nice, I'm going to try that with my Pulse-Generator.

[richfiles]

https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/tag/manhattan-construction/

Found this address. Apparently there is actually a product that exists specifically for this purpose called MePads and MeSquares. The dude in the link above used them for his project. Regardless, if you get a single sided proto board, you could just bend the leads of a socket out and surface mount the socket (or get a SMT socket) to solder to the proto board, and then just glue it down.

Another option that involves NON-precise drilling, would be to drill out one or two LARGE holes, basically, enough to encompass the entire IC. Glue a perfboard down, and solder/wire wrap the socket so the chip points out the bottom. You don't have to sit there and worry about tiny precision aligned holes. Big honking' drill... Buzz through once, twice, trice, if need be... Waggle that bit to open the hose up. Boom, done. Glue down the perfboard.

[bills]

Very cool I just bought some of those to try out.

[Chris Wilson]

More good ideas! Thanks.

I have just ordered some wire wrap long legged IC sockets from Farnell here in the UK. Idea is the outermost  legs on 4 pin longer than needed sockets can anchor the sockets to the ground plane, plus any other pins that are actually used and need grounding. That should make for a solidly mounted socket. the other pins, being longer, and when bent outwards, allow easier soldering of multiple components. I'll see how they work out! The little PCB MePads look nice, too, and the dual socket idea is something I must try. All very stimulating ideas, Manhattan lives!

[MyElectronsFellOut]

This is the first time I've come across this method of prototyping, I might have to give this a go.

[retrolefty]

This is the first time I've come across this method of prototyping, I might have to give this a go.

 It's pretty popular in Ham Radio DIY world. One can get very good RF performance on the cheap. 

[w2aew]

This is the first time I've come across this method of prototyping, I might have to give this a go.

 It's pretty popular in Ham Radio DIY world. One can get very good RF performance on the cheap. 

Using things like MePads is one of several prototype construction techniques I show in this video:

[alsetalokin4017]

I cut little strips of PCboard, and using a fine saw I remove material to make pads that match the IC socket pin spacing. Glue the strips to the main groundplane with superglue, bend the socket legs out horizontally, and solder the socket to the strip pads. Actually, I usually do the socket soldering first, then glue the pad strips w/socket down to the groundplane.

[Chris Wilson]

Isn't an MePad a rather good capacitor though?

[alsetalokin4017]

Isn't an MePad a rather good capacitor though?

small plate area + large plate separation = tiny capacitance... ?

[Kalvin]

Isn't an MePad a rather good capacitor though?

5mmx5mm pad on 1.6mm FR4 gives approx. 0.6pF.
10mmx10mm pad on 1.6mm FR4 gives approx. 2.3pF.

5mmx5mm pad on 0.8mm FR4 gives approx. 1.2pF.
10mmx10mm pad on 0.8mm FR4 gives approx. 4.7pF.

Used this: http://www.daycounter.com/Calculators/Plate-Capacitor-Calculator.phtml

[Gyro]

Another option that involves NON-precise drilling, would be to drill out one or two LARGE holes, basically, enough to encompass the entire IC. Glue a perfboard down, and solder/wire wrap the socket so the chip points out the bottom. You don't have to sit there and worry about tiny precision aligned holes. Big honking' drill... Buzz through once, twice, trice, if need be... Waggle that bit to open the hose up. Boom, done. Glue down the perfboard.

I have just ordered some wire wrap long legged IC sockets from Farnell here in the UK. Idea is the outermost  legs on 4 pin longer than needed sockets can anchor the sockets to the ground plane, plus any other pins that are actually used and need grounding. That should make for a solidly mounted socket. the other pins, being longer, and when bent outwards, allow easier soldering of multiple components. I'll see how they work out!

Come on guys what are you, mice or Macho masters of Manhattan architecture???    It's so easy to clip a strip of veroboard (perfboard) to the back of the board with a pair of spring clamps and use it as a template to drill a few 1mm holes (ink in a few footprints to help keep track of holes). The best tool is a little hand (fingers) held Archimedes  drill, nothing electric. 1mm hole size gives you plenty of slack for alignment errors (as easy as inserting into stripboard in fact!) and makes it easy to unsolder groundplane connected pins with a sucker. It takes me about 2 mins to do a small dip pkg and countersink the unconnected holes with a vero track cutter or twist drill. No need for sockets, especially expensive wirewrap ones and quicker than bending all those legs to the right length. I've even done it on my knee (not recommended though) . It's so easy to remove ICs if you need to.

Equally space 3 or 4 ICs and you can even use them as feet! 

Edit: It's also the lowest capacitance and inductance solution.