[sdiy] When NOT to use sockets for chips ?

[René Schmitz]

Tim Daugard wrote:

> If was building commercial equipment, it would definetely be no
> sockets. MIL SPEC is no sockets, confromal coated. But for my own
> equipent it is always sockets. I have destroyed one IC four times in
> a piece of test equipment I built. Soldering and unsoldering that
> chip would seriously weaken the board after three repairs (high

I have had a similar circuit. The thing was an unintentional 
"zap-a-chip" circuit, which killed the newly replaced chips
(back then I used sockets). Ok, the chip is dead, so just replace it.
Strange, the new one is dead as well, but it came right out of the 
tube... Oh my, why is there -15 where +15 was supposed to be... :-P

The time and effort it takes to unsolder something helps you to take the 
time sit down, measure and re-think, before swapping something. :-)

Needless to say that I now rarely use sockets. For me there must be a 
good reason to do that.

Cheers,
  René


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uzs159 at uni-bonn.de
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