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wire-wrap PLCC sockets available

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:45 am
by Garth
Aries used to sell WW PLCC sockets which I bought years ago

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and when I lamented on 6502.org today that AFAIK no one makes them anymore, BigEd gave us a link to http://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/?searchTe ... ra=oss&r=t which stocks them in many sizes!

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Note that they take no more board space than SMT PLCC sockets do.

Re: wire-wrap PLCC sockets available

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:07 am
by brad
Do you find wire wrapping to be an easy method for building your circuits?

Re: wire-wrap PLCC sockets available

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:37 am
by Garth
Do you find wire wrapping to be an easy method for building your circuits?
The same prototyping methods that are good for digital are not good for analog, and vice versa.

For digital, yes, wire wrap is very practical, easy, reliable, and makes for much better density and performance than soldering wires. See my page, "Answering Wire-Wrap (WW) Questions and Doubts," at http://wilsonminesco.com/6502primer/WireWrap.html . Wire-wrap sockets are more expensive than soldertail, and the PLCC ones are far more expensive, but a handful of them is still a lot cheaper than making a single multilayer PC board, and if someone were timid about taking the time to learn a CAD and committing to an expensive multilayer board that may need changes or additions in the future, the WW PLCC sockets still make sense.

Wire wrap is not so good for analog, because of all the discrete components. For analog, I have used dozens of the Radio Shack 276-170 analog prototyping PC boards which have the same pattern that the common solderless breadboards with the hundreds of plug-in contacts have.

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Similar but with more buses plus holes at the ends for connectors is BusBoard Prototype Systems' BR1:

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Although these prototyping boards are so nice for analog, they are not good for getting decent performance in digital work. See my page "Construction: Avoiding AC-Performance Problems" at http://wilsonminesco.com/6502primer/construction.html

Re: wire-wrap PLCC sockets available

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:27 pm
by brad
Thanks for the great info Garth. This will actually be handy to show in my classes :)