[balou]

Hi,
I figured out that I ordered way to few brown dog adapters, and I don't want to order any new ones because
1. at first you think that 3$ isn't much, but it's summing up if you need a few
2. shipping costs...
3. shipping time (from us to europe)

So, I thought about DIYing some adapters... but how?

I have two ideas in my mind:

- Use a dip socket, and just spread the legs and solder them somehow to the dip adapter. problem: how do you spread the legs without breaking them, and how do you even fit them in the adapter? you'd have to either use some wire, or make a rather wide solder bridge

- use stripboard and 2.54mm pin strip (umm... this is a very unprecise english translation, but I think you know what I mean). Cut the traces of the stripboard in the middle, so that you have a total of eight separated pads. then do as above, spread the legs a bit and solder them down. you don't need wire or extra wide solder bridges here, but I don't if that'll work.

and third idea would be etching some adapters, but that will be definitely to much work.

has anybody of you already done this? I would be glad to hear if leg-bending works, and pics would be appreciated, too

 

[vixr]

take a look at this or this or just go here, and prepare to be amazed!!! Look near the bottom in the TIP section...this is the inner sanctum of DIY guruism

 

[balou]

thanks.. number 3 and 4 look quite good. does anybody know how to bend the small pins of the soic chip without breaking them off?

number 3 is also nice because it shows that you dont need dil strip... just arrange some capacitor clippings inside a dil adapter. really a nice idea

 

[mono]

If/when you try to spread the legs, don't try to make a sharp bend right at the IC body which sort-of tears the lead some, instead a more gradual curve which can be near the body but not a really sharp angle. Yes you might damage one a certain % of the time even if careful, and personally I don't like using very long solder bridges, making the signal go through a lot of tin/lead, but I wouldn't want to use high silver content solder either because of the heat needed to flow it so close to the chip ('s short leads), plus higher heat on a DIP socket will start to melt the plastic.

As for too much work to etch, well maybe it seems that way if you aren't actively etching things already, but if you are often trying to find some other alternative besides buying simple boards, in the long run it might not be a bad idea to look into gaining proficiency in etching. The beauty of etching something like this is that you can get very many patterns onto a sheet of paper and copper clad, make a batch of a few dozen at once almost as easily as only a smaller number.

Since such an adapter isn't very large you might consider using thinner copper clad. Thin enough it can be cut with scissors, or if you have access to a paper cutter that is what I prefer to use. For example look at this page. They call 0.16" thickness "scissor cut" but if you have some good large scissors (I've used Wiss brand 10 1/4") you can cut 0.21" thickness too if you have reasonably strong hands, as well as using a paper cutter, but the more common thicker ~ 0.06" boards many people use are way too thick to cut with scissors or a swing-arm paper cutter. Some very expensive radial-saw types of paper cutter might do the job but are beyond economical for most individuals to own.

If you have a "Helping Hands" or equivalent soldering aid you can more easily solder small wires to the pins then snip off excess till each is a few mm long, then bend and push down into a DIP socket.

 

[balou]

thanks mono. considering the danger of damaging the chips: I'll use brown dogs for the pricier chips (ad8620 e.g.), and this method for the cheaper ones. for example I'm going to mod my el-cheapo eighties cd player (with just a single dac for both channels...). for this cdp, an ad8066 and some metalized polyester caps will do just fine - it's not going to be high end hifi anyways


about the etching - you're right, if I'm going to etch some other boards, putting a few adapters on it comes at practically no additional cost. but thinner boards are hard to get in europe - but cutting isn't a problem, I've got a dentists drill, cutting some protoboard with it was no problem. buying some stuff to start etching is definitely on my todo list