Nail Head pins

[Richard Scales]

Hello everyone.

I want to make a board that plugs in to a tube socket which has minimal height on the 'top' side.

The image is from a 'Nail Head' pin from Millmax.

Has anyone used these or anything similar?

- Richard

[Dekatron42]

I haven't used that exact type of pins but I tried a similar type and had some problems with them when they were subjected to pressure from the side which resulted in them coming loose. I had to minimize the hole diameter in the circuit board almost to a press-fit size so they couldn't flex/bend but then I also got some problems with a few that were pushed up when inserted as I guess that there was to little solder fastening them - a proper press-fit pin would have been better for my case but I didn't find any that fit my needs. It could probably have been done better but I didn't have the space nor the time to experiment much more so I decided to go with longer pins and two circuit boards on top of each other. I ended up buying cheap gilded longer pins without the head from eBay (Chinese seller), similar to the ones used in the adapter below.

[Richard Scales]

Very nice looking adapters though. I am looking at some pins that have a slight shoulder which will (hopefully) mitigate against them being pushed through the board.

- Richard

[Tidak Ada]

Look for wire-wrap pins the single ones have  a thickening to fix in a drilled hole (PCB). They will make better contact as round pins too.

 

eric

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[Neil QQ]

Richard, I have quite a bit of experience with these in a number of different applications.  On the off chance you haven't discovered this, here are links to the two biggest manufacturers:

Mill-Max (obviously you've found them)

https://www.mill-max.com/products/new/pcb-sockets-and-micro-plugs

TE Connectivity (legacy AMP)

https://www.te.com/usa-en/plp/Y30gv.html

About Chinese suppliers . . . generally the quality is good but the number of sizes and styles offered is extremely limited.  Basically they "cherry pick" their offerings to high market volume/demand versions.

It would help to know details about your desired application or more specific question(s).

Neil Q.

[Richard Scales]

My application is to make a small circular PCB which will 'plug' in place of a Z566 tube - hence the need for 1mm diameter pins. This small board will then have some interconnecting pins (positioned within the confines of the Z566 pin positions) that reach up to a similar small board which has matching positions for the interconnecting pins. The top board will have pin sockets (Harwin style) for an IN-18 tube.

The track layout takes care of all the required pin mapping. The boards will be spaced sufficiently far enough apart to avoid any electrical contact between them other than that provided by the interconnecting pins.

For the board interconnects I plan to use pins clipped from a strip of 0.1" spaced header pins - the commonly available type - there are no special requirements of these pins apart from being long enough!

Ultimately - the completed item will allow an IN-18 to be used in a socket designed for a Z566. A variant of this would allow a Z566 to be plugged in on the top board so that IN-18 and Z566 could be intermixed and presented at the same height.

This is something that I was asked to make for a colleague who wants to showcase different tubes on the same clocks - no other aesthetic justification (positive or negative) required!

- Richard

[Neil QQ]

Ah.  Makes sense.  So if I understand you correctly:

- The connection to the mother/main/existing board to the bottom (first level daughter/mezzanine board) is by way of solid pins installed on the bottom board entering the existing Z566 socket on the mother/main/existing board. 

- The connection between the bottom to the top (second level daughter board) is via 0.1" header/receptacle connector pair.

- The connection between the top board to the IN-18 tube is by way of pin sockets installed on the top board.

Do you seek assistance finding the right bottom board solid pin?  The top board pin socket?  Both of these?

To reduce the top to bottom board distance have you looked at something like this?  Of course these are a lot more expensive than the ubiquitous, cheap, and effective 0.1" connectors.  I've attached the Mill-Max datasheet.

If you are concerned about mechanical pin/socket retention to the pcb, plated-through mounting holes with oversized top and bottom pads help quite a bit.  You can always use eyelets in lieu of plated-through holes.  In any case you should certainly solder the pin or socket to the pcb for mechanical strength.

[Mac Doktor]

On Mar 13, 2022, at 11:55 AM, Neil QQ <nei...@gmail.com> wrote:

If you are concerned about mechanical pin/socket retention to the pcb, plated-through mounting holes with oversized top and bottom pads help quite a bit.  You can always use eyelets in lieu of plated-through holes.  In any case you should certainly solder the pin or socket to the pcb for mechanical strength.

My first real job was repairing cable TV amplifiers and their power supplies. One Jerrold power supply baffled all of us. Whacking the dear life out of it caused it to turn off every once in a while for a split-second. I spent three hours going over it to no avail. Two co-workers racked up another couple of hours and gave it back to me. The attitude was that it was my problem.

Then I got lucky. It stopped working completely so I immediately killed the power (60V square wave AC) and began checking the continuity between pads, gingerly touching them with the tips of the test leads. The bridge rectifier was a high current, stud-mounted type with four thick leads running through eyelets in the PC board. I quickly discovered that there was no continuity from one leg of the BR to the surrounding pad despite the fresh solder on the eyelet. We did try to re-crimp it using the wrong tools as we didn't have the right one. Ultimately, I had to use way more solder than usual. 

This breakthrough in the history of solid-state electronics was the subject of a memo to all employees in the Line Repair Division of Dept. 3 the next day. The shift manager managed to bungle that up by mis-spelling a word in the memo's title, "Eyelit Mod".

Total time for the labor on this fixed-cost repair was something like six hours, four times what was allotted for a line amp and/or PS. My boss was just happy to get the thing out the door. And we never saw it happen again.

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

"Damn, damn, damn, DAMN!"—Professor Henry HIggins, My Fair Lady