dead bug chip testing idea

[coppercone2]

I realized this, and intend to build it

if you get a good quality machine pin socket, you can take it apart to make little boots that go over chip leads, so you can dead bug wire a op amp or something without a bread board, with heat shrink

i find it super frustrating to have to get a bread board for this job.

I don't have any, but I also intend to get some TO-3, TO-220 sockets to take apart to make little adapters for arbitrary wiring, since those parts dont breadboard well.

Any suggestions for available sockets for this kind of thing to add to my shopping list?

yes, for DIP you can use a bread board, but the TO package is not compatible, and this is frankly IMO better when you are mad, breadboards are the last thing I wanna see when trouble shooting a new PCB. call me crazy

I think I intend to make shorting jumpers, and jumpers that terminate to a du-pont so you can put a grabber on it for components, and possibly even things like resistor sockets if I can find some.


I am thinking a all inclusive through hole deadbug test kit, that covers everything from clean to solder covered parts. If you need grabbers to work with solder parts, its less neat then socket ends, but yeah... i think i developed a breadboard alergy.


Any good sockets that might fit standard size diodes, resistors, etc? (up to a few watts)?


I literarly spent all day trouble shooting something because I chose to believe a expensive to-3 part must be fine since it just came in from mouser and subconciously I was annoyed because I did not have a good way to test it. its not my crazy design, turns out there was a bad channel right out of the box and I got confused by some complex feedback loop until I cut the power and realized the signal is there when its not supposed to be there!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want this to not have a soldering iron, and have some reasonable design choices to minimize wiring length if possible.

maybe if I make a kit box with a special breadboard only ever used for trouble shooting with some well made jumpers that have little handles glued on to them i can tolerate it

but i gotta say there is something mad calming about being able to use mini grabbers and stuff to connect a part rather then having to think about a bread board. it felt like an activity not a challange and pain in the ass

[Dan123456]

I found these for TO-220 but it doesn’t look like they will come apart easily and they are stupid expensive (from my hobbyist point of view)!

https://www.digikey.com.au/en/products/detail/sullins-connector-solutions/FMC05DRTN-S1682/4213433

And this TO-3 thing is even more stupid expensive!

https://www.digikey.com.au/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/0804MC/300486

That said, maybe you might be able to drill out a dip socket with precision drill bits?

I just tried slipping a TO-220 into a machined DIP socket and it appears to be just a tad too tight so maybe taking a 10th of a millimeter off might make it fit and could be a budget alternative? Or there might even be a drill bit the exact size (double check both imperial and metric) of the leads already (I didn’t have my callipers handy) 

[SeanB]

Turned pin sockets, or even turned pin SIL arrays, are common, and you can use them for this, though the TO packages are best used with leads, as the larger ones, like TO3p and TO 220, are not really compatible with breadboard. As to TO100, it is trivial to use a 16pin turned pin socket, as these are cheap, and shape the pins to match the DIL8 layout, and use half the socket for each device. For the lead to wire adaptors, just buy the inexpensive JST connectors, and the stamped sockets, and either crimp the wires to them, or just order the premade JST female wire sets, as they are 0.1in spacing, and will handle most common component leads from IC's to TO220 just fine. Singles or ganged, your choice, though just getting the 10 way ones with premade wires works well, and you can cut nthem down to smaller, along with cut and strip the ends, and tin, to use into other connectors.