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Safe way to insert v-20 in 5150 without bending the legs?

Very carefully :)

If the legs are bent i generally use a IC socket - Long nose pliers and or hollow needle, Get the legs aligned so they fit the socket perfectly, Place the IC in the socket in your 5150 and before pushing down make sure all legs are where they should be in the socket, Use a magnifying glass if needed. There are IC leg straightener tools around but i never bothered buying one.
 
Malc said:
Very carefully :)

If the legs are bent i generally use a IC socket - Long nose pliers and or hollow needle, Get the legs aligned so they fit the socket perfectly, Place the IC in the socket in your 5150 and before pushing down make sure all legs are where they should be in the socket, Use a magnifying glass if needed. There are IC leg straightener tools around but i never bothered buying one.
Click to expand...

I'm being a bit lazy and leaving the motherboard in situ in the 5150. After a few goes with a pliers I got the V-20 seated.

Might buy one of those straighteners. €5.00 on eBay.

Edit: Going to tackle glitch's XT-IDE kit next.
 
fjk61011 said:
What is the best way to insert v-20 in a 5150 without bend ring the legs?
Click to expand...

Without pre-bending the legs... what I do is use both hands to firmly hold the two ends of the IC (and avoiding touching the pins). Get one row of pins engaged in the socket, then push the IC sideways until the opposite row of pins will engage into the socket. Only push the IC fully into the socket after you have verified all pins on both sides of the IC have engaged with the socket.
 
For long DIPs if I don't feel like digging out my straightening tool I will just place each row of pins against a flat surface and roll the chip
 
I put the IC on it's side on a flat surface, and push down while rolling inwards a little. Then repeat for other side.
Test fit, if still to wide, roll more.

Only takes a few seconds and always works flawlessly for me.
 
SpidersWeb said:
I put the IC on it's side on a flat surface, and push down while rolling inwards a little. Then repeat for other side.
Test fit, if still to wide, roll more.
Click to expand...

I hopped into this thread to recommend this exact thing. The only thing I'd add is when you do the rolling action try to center over the thicker ends of the pins so you're basically re-aligning the "whole" pin. (IE, you're changing the angle of the existing bend where the pin emerges from the chip body instead of just bending the thinner part that actually goes into the socket inward.)

On the needle-nose pliers suggestion: that works too, but don't be a bonehead and accidentally snip off one of the end pins because it goes past the flat part of the plier into the wire-clipper part near the hinge. Not speaking from experience here or anything.

(Or, yeah, maybe I am; managed to do it to a flash ROM chip. I fixed the chip by seating it in the socket, sticking a bit of lead cut off a resistor or capacitor into the socket hole where the cut-off pin belonged, and soldering it to the stump of the pin. Works fine, isn't exactly attractive.)
 
SpidersWeb said:
I put the IC on it's side on a flat surface, and push down while rolling inwards a little. Then repeat for other side.
Test fit, if still to wide, roll more.

Only takes a few seconds and always works flawlessly for me.
Click to expand...

I second that! Funny enough -- just did that with a V20 two days ago! :)
 
SpidersWeb said:
I put the IC on it's side on a flat surface, and push down while rolling inwards a little. Then repeat for other side.
Test fit, if still to wide, roll more.

Only takes a few seconds and always works flawlessly for me.
Click to expand...

I agree, it can be done in steps so that the ultimate spacing of the pins on each side of the IC matches the spacing of the socket entry points.

The pushing down part you mentioned is very important because when the pins bend, you want them to bend near the IC body, so the entire pin remains straight. If the pins are bent elsewhere I also use the smooth long nosed pliers.

Many NOS IC's the pins are far too far apart and are way off the standard DIL format of the socket, and if they are inserted into a socket, by aligning one row and springing them together to engage the other row (call that the compression method for want of a name) it can cause problems, especially with the old TI style sockets, where the pin then misses the two jaws of the socket's claw and slips down beside the IC's plastic body and claw metalwork, making for an unreliable connection that causes a failure later. Though this is not as much of a problem with the standard dual wipe or machined pin sockets.

Yet reading some of the old PT assembly manuals the compression method was recommended. In my SOL-20 and on some of PT's 16kRA memory cards I found exactly this problem where this method was used by the original board's constructor and I had to do what you have said, to align the IC pins to fit the entry points on the sockets, prior to inserting each IC.

Another thing that can help, if there is doubt that the original socket might have been damaged, a pin fron a defunct IC can be soldered to a small wire handle to feel the individual socket claw tensions and how that is for the standard geometry IC pin.
 
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