I've just bought the WW tool that was recommended on Garth's site (the WSU-30M).

One thing I can't seem to find are the sockets to use with it.

I see them on eBay but I want to make sure I get the right stuff.

I know they're more expensive but I'm tired of wrangling a solder iron around tiny wires.

Thanks for any recommendations.

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Cat; the other white meat.

Jameco has them (note that there are several pages here, and the WW sockets are mixed in with the soldertail ones), Mouser, Digikey, etc.. It looks like Jameco is the cheapest of these, with most sockets being in the $1.50 to $3 range but 40-pin being an expensive booger at $5.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

That's perfect.

Ironically, doesn't appear to be any more expensive than eBay.

Thanks!

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Cat; the other white meat.

I'd recommend the machine tool sockets. They're more expensive but way more reliable IMO.

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

How would I know the difference?

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Cat; the other white meat.

The machine tool sockets have round holes.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/20pcs-8Pin-DIP- ... SwxN5WUzyH (machined)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-20-PCS-8-Pi ... SwLVZVqMtN ('normal')

I just picked the first items in ebay, to get pictures. These are not wire wrapping sockets, but otherwise similar. You'll notice that the machined ones are more expensive.

Although my workbench computer has had a lot of improvements over the years, I initially made it 23 years ago. It has twenty-four DIP sockets on the 4½" x 6½" board, not counting the mezzanine. The only episode of unreliability was 18 years ago, with a standard WW socket for one of the VIAs losing contact somewhere on one of the pins. I just pried the VIA up, but not out, and pushed it back down, and the self-cleaning effect of the wiping movement against the contacts took care of the problem.

The automated test equipment I built and programmed at work around 1991 used a 65c02-based Cµbit 7540 CPU card with machine-tooled sockets. This became a problem for the EPROMs which went in and out so many times during the development. The machine-tooled EPROM sockets got really loose and failed, and had to be replaced. I think the standard sockets, if they are of the double-wipe kind, ie, that the electrical contacts press against both sides of every pin instead of just one side, are quite reliable and are better suited for lots of plug-unplug cycles.

The aircraft intercom model we sold for 13+ years (and most of them are still in service today, nine years after the end of production) had a double-wipe EPROM socket, and we've never had a single failure on those sockets.

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

So, you're saying it's been a reliable computer??? LOL

WOW. That is amazing. I have expensive iPods, tablets, etc. that already crapped out on me.

Long live 8 bit!

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Cat; the other white meat.

Yes, many PCs and disc drives (with no IC sockets) that I've bought since then have gone south too. Most of the electronics I bought or made in the 70's and 80's are still working, but not the modern stuff.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

I'd like to add that those male pin headers that we all know and love for IDC headers (think IDE connectors) work great for wire-wrapping too.

===Jac

How would you use them? Wouldn't you have to solder them next to a normal socket?

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Cat; the other white meat.

That's what I did for my SBC project: http://i.imgur.com/fCoxoIB.jpg

It's much cheaper than real WW sockets, but it means more soldering, and you don't get quite as much space on each pin for wraps.

Ah, I see what you're saying now.

Unfortunately, I've run into a snag. I can't seem to find 28 pin sockets that are 0.6" wide to be used for ROM, 6551, etc.

I can only find the narrow version (used for my 32K SRAM).

https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=200716

Anyone know where I can get the wide version?

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Cat; the other white meat.

Yup. You can buy perfboards with 3 holes per island, they're perfect for that.

There's an article on my old Propeddle website about a wire-wrap I did earlier, just for the heck of it. I had to do it twice because as it turned out, the board I used the first time had a chip that wasn't placed correctly. I'm sure I could have gotten a replacement from Parallax (they really are excellent folks) but I didn't bother; I just remade it.

Anyway, for that version of Propeddle I used WW sockets that I got from the local Fry's electronics, and for the connections to the Propeller pins on the board I used those headers I was talking about. Be sure to click the pictures in my article to see more details.



Obviously you can make smaller sockets out of big ones and bigger sockets out of small ones. For maximum stability, you can solder them to the PCB (though many people will tell you you don't have to, including myself. I think I just "tacked" two pins on opposite corners of each chip on my Propeddle wire wrap).

And of course you could consider to just buy a long strip of breakaway single-row wire-wrap socket. For example, the Harwin 20-pin wire-wrap strip, e.g. http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Harwin/D01-9952042 (the picture is inaccurate, click on the Datasheet link). There are other types (and other brands) with different numbers of pins, too. And I'm sure you can get them at other places (I shop at Mouser because they have Western Design Center and Parallax products).

===Jac

You can get single strips and cut them to any length you want and put the two of them any distance apart you want as well. Otherwise, you could use a 40-pin WW DIP socket and cut the length down to 28, or just use it as-in and leave the last 12 pins at one end unused.

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?