MOTM

>-----Original Message-----
>Is there any merit to NOT using sockets verses using them?


I always used to think that sockets were a good idea, and I don't know that
anything I've ever built using sockets has failed for that reason.

But if you'll notice, MOTM modules do not use them (with the only exception
being for very expensive, "core" chips that might someday fail and need to
be replaced).

Some feel that a mechanical socket is just another point of failure, and one
that is far more likely (picks up dirt, oxidizes) than a good, solid solder
joint.

Sure, once in a great while, you screw something up (put a chip in
backwards, for instance) and need to remove one, but it's not THAT difficult
(I've taken out >8 pin chips with a $5 solder sucker and my iron many times
with no damage to the board or part).

Many feel that the benefit of not worrying that the crappy connection in a
socket will fail outweighs the few times you need to pull a chip. If you
MUST use sockets, the more expensive ones with the round pins and round
contact holes are supposedly better than the Radio Shack "flat pin" type.
But as I've said, I've used sockets for over two decades (the cheap type)
and am unaware of any of them failing.

I guess it's like insurance. If nothing happens to you, you wonder why you
wasted your money. If something does happen, you wonder why you didn't take
out a bigger policy.

Then there's the financial argument: If you're soldering in a 50-cent* 555
timer chip, and you use a 50-cent cheapo socket, what's the point? You just
doubled the cost of something that you will, in all likelihood, never ever
need to touch again (unless it fails, and that may be due to the socket!).
And what's the point of using a $2 socket for a 555? On the other hand, if I
was soldering CEM or SSM chips, yeah, I'd probably seat it in a nice
gold-plated non-oxidizing socket juuuuuuust in case.

But you know, if you put a chip in backwards and it takes you an hour to get
it out, odds are that you will never do it again. <bg>



* - Does guessing that a 555 costs a half a buck date me? Are they up to $14
yet...?