EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Beginners => Topic started by: knotlogic on November 08, 2019, 02:23:55 am
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This is probably a very dumb question, but which end of these turned pin headers is meant to be soldered into my PCB and which end is for plugging into other parts?
I picked up a bunch of these cheap for proto boards that get plugged into breadboards. I was finding that regular square pins were a pain to plug in/pull out of the breadboards I have and was worried about breaking something.
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I don't know what's the name of it in English, may be the end look like "stepped shaft"?
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I don't know what's the name of it in English, may be the end look like "stepped shaft"?
Honestly, as a native English speaker, I'm not sure how to describe it either! The bit on the right?
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They’re interesting headers...
They look like they’re probably intended for wire wrap on the shorter ‘rough’ end.
That’s the side I’d solder on, and leave the smooth ‘round’ pin for the breadboard.
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They’re interesting headers...
They look like they’re probably intended for wire wrap on the shorter ‘rough’ end.
That’s the side I’d solder on, and leave the smooth ‘round’ pin for the breadboard.
Not wire-wrap posts. All wire-wrap posts are square so the corners dig into the wire.
The side with the larger diameter is for soldering.
The side with the smaller diameter is meant to plug into an IC socket.
Here is an example USB Adapter board from DLP Design:
[attachimg=1]
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Not wire-wrap posts. All wire-wrap posts are square so the corners dig into the wire.
Just so. Square posts are the secret to the success of wire-wrap!!
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The conical end stands above the board. The cylindrical one is closer to the solder joint. As I see on the picture posted, the right side is where the solder connection is made.
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I have seen them called Single [Row] In-Line connectors, SIL in short.
As others said, the thick side is soldered, the thin side goes into a SIL socket. They can also be plugged into breadboards or DIP sockets.
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This is probably a very dumb question, but which end of these turned pin headers is meant to be soldered into my PCB and which end is for plugging into other parts?
I picked up a bunch of these cheap for proto boards that get plugged into breadboards. I was finding that regular square pins were a pain to plug in/pull out of the breadboards I have and was worried about breaking something.
Not a dumb question at all.
As others said, the thicker side goes in the board, the thin conical side are the pins.
Your worry about square pins (or the thick side of these male headers) damaging things is valid: while I've found that breadboards seem to handle it OK (at least if they're of decent quality), if you insert the thick side into a female turned socket, you will permanently damage the socket. I learned this the hard way when fiddling with them. (Luckily, before soldering the sockets into anything!!)
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I have seen them called Single [Row] In-Line connectors, SIL in short.
As others said, the thick side is soldered, the thin side goes into a SIL socket. They can also be plugged into breadboards or DIP sockets.
I think they weren't talking about what the whole device is called, but rather what to call the shape on the board-side half of it! ;)
(As for what the whole thing is called, I'd call these "machined headers", by the way, in this case, a male one.)
I don't know what's the name of it in English, may be the end look like "stepped shaft"?
Honestly, as a native English speaker, I'm not sure how to describe it either! The bit on the right?
I'd say maybe the side with the flat shoulder.
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Thanks all!
Your worry about square pins (or the thick side of these male headers) damaging things is valid: while I've found that breadboards seem to handle it OK (at least if they're of decent quality), if you insert the thick side into a female turned socket, you will permanently damage the socket. I learned this the hard way when fiddling with them. (Luckily, before soldering the sockets into anything!!)
It's not just the damage to the breadboard putting square pins in, I've had plenty of problems pulling them out as well. I had a protoboard that was essentially a 40 pin DIP which I've had to lever out very carefully. (Plugging it in also came with risk of damage to my fingers.) Built up another with the turned pin SIL connectors and it was a lot easier to plug in/out.
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I think they are supposed to be used with female tulip pin headers. Try one and see which side fits best and solder the other one ;)
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Oh, someone mentioned the method of wiring invented by IBM for their mainframes. I very much doubt that in the 21st century someone will produce accessories for this. And these connectors have nothing to do with such a method.
The side that has flat pads on the contacts should be adjacent to the board. A flat PCB goes perfectly with flat pads of contacts, in my opinion:)
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So flat side to the board. But what if I want to use them with female machined pin headers? Those longer pins are too loose in mine, and these shorter ones are much better fit for those.
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If you stick the thick end into a female socket then only the thick end will ever work in this socket ;)
It's not how they are supposed to be used, but you can.
Another abomination I have seen: transmale connectors :scared:
Slide a cable into a female socket, solder it in, stick the mounting pins like a male plug into a female socket.
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I think they are supposed to be used with female tulip pin headers. Try one and see which side fits best and solder the other one ;)
Tulip pin?? Is that autocorrect of “turned pin”? (Which we all already knew.)
But as magic just said, and I said a few days ago: if you stick the thick side of these male headers into a female turned socket, you WILL permanently damage the socket, and the socket will never again accept the thin (correct) side, nor actual ICs, correctly.
Oh, someone mentioned the method of wiring invented by IBM for their mainframes. I very much doubt that in the 21st century someone will produce accessories for this. And these connectors have nothing to do with such a method.
Are you talking about wire wrap? That wasn’t invented by IBM. It’s certainly quite rare today, but many parts are still made. Look at the full Mill-Max catalog, you’ll be surprised at how much wire wrap stuff they still make. And you can still get wire wrap tools.
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So flat side to the board. But what if I want to use them with female machined pin headers? Those longer pins are too loose in mine, and these shorter ones are much better fit for those.
Did you insert the thick side of the male header into the female turned header, even just once? If so, the female header is ruined and must be replaced.
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Are you talking about wire wrap?
Yes, I talked about it. As far as I know, IBM used it. For some reason I thought they invented it.
Wire wrapping was used in the USSR and books were written about it. I read these books.
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Are you talking about wire wrap?
Yes, I talked about it. As far as I know, IBM used it. For some reason I thought they invented it.
Wire wrapping was used in the USSR and books were written about it. I read these books.
IBM definitely used it, but it was invented many years earlier. Wiki says Bell invented it.
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Wire wrapping was used in telephone central offices long before it was used for the general purpose electronics.
I used wire wrapping in the early 1980s. By then it was mature, with a body of knowledge from decades of experience. There was a large, detailed set of rules to make reliable connections. The pin and wire plating, wire gauge, insulation type and thickness, etc were precisely specified and standardized. If you followed the specified techniques, the result would be very reliable. Not quick, not easy, not easy to debug, not inexpensive, but very reliable.
For my hobby projects I had one of the inexpensive double-ended hand wrap tools. One end was for unwrapping, the other for wrapping, with a wire stripping groove in the middle. I think that most hobbyists of the era had that tool and a spool of the blue insulated silver-plated 30 AWG wire. A hobby alternative was a soft insulation wire intended to be used without stripping, with the square post cutting through the insulation, but that wasn't considered as reliable.
The setup I used for large boards was typical for commercial prototyping. There was wire storage, and the X-Y assembly machine. Wire storage was a panel with storage tubes for pre-cut, pre-stripped wires. Each tube held a different length, and the pre-cut wires had insulation color coded for their length. (Hmmm, DigiKey still sells the wire packs. $9.50 for 50 pieces of the shortest length, which is about what it cost "back in the day". For a typical 2000 wire board that's $400 for just the wire!) The assembly frame had two stepper motors that moved an L-shaped bracket. A tap on a foot pedal moved the bracket to the origin location and flashed the wire length on a LED display. A line-powered wrap tool ($$$) was used to spin the wire down. A second tap moved the bracket to the destination, which was always lower and/or left. That allowed for "Manhattan routing" (e.g. always horizontal then vertical) of the wire while the guide was slewing to the new location, and reduced the chance of damage from tapping the pedal a little early.