[sdiy] IC socket reliability/0.100 headers?

[ASSI]

On Monday 21 January 2013, 10:39:06, Dave Kendall wrote:
> I guess it's fair to say that MTA-type 0.100 style connectors can
> suffer from many of the disadvantages of IC sockets? They do make life
> easy and neat, but I guess a soldered connection to a PCB pin with
> heastshrink for added mechanical strength is possibly the most
> reliable.

No, you veered into the _other_ lane now.  There is no reliable way to 
solder a flexible cable to a board if it can still move, so if you can't 
bring whatever is at the other end of that cable directly on board, you need 
a calbe-to-board connection.  That's what these are designed to do, the 
important difference to an IC socket is that the socket and the pin are 
mated.  If you really don't need the cable to be removable (usually on one 
side only) you could skip the socket by using press-fit pins crimped to the 
cable.

> Any comments on that, or long-term 0.100 fail stories?

As long as the cables are crimped correctly you'd need really adverse 
conditions to require moving up to even better connectors.  Make sure 
there's no mechanical strain on them and they should be fine.  The ones I've 
seen fail have mostly been mistreated during assembly or soldering or 
overloaded due to a short circuit.


Regards,
Achim.
-- 
+<[Q+ Matrix-12 WAVE#46+305 Neuron microQkb Andromeda XTk Blofeld]>+

Wavetables for the Terratec KOMPLEXER:
http://Synth.Stromeko.net/Downloads.html#KomplexerWaves