putting wires on teeny connector

[Big Bad Bob]

the obligatory hack, first:

recently I needed to 'mock up' a connector because I ran out of
connector breakout boards but still had connectors (and a device that
needed one).

the connector had pins with 0.5mm spacing. yeah, teensy ones. I needed
to connect only 3 of the wires, though, which made it easier. And the
connector itself only has 6 pins, so it's REALLY FREAKING TINY.

So what did I do?

3 stripped wire-wrap wires (30ga solid strand) going through holes in a
piece of cardboard cut from a radio shack prototyping board bubble wrap
thingy, placed "just right", made it possible to solder 3 pins onto them
(after a LOT of profane Navy terms were thrown at it). I superglued the
connector in place after verifying the pins went over the wires as they
should. Then I soldered the wires (with a bit of difficulty and a lot
of flux). Then I superglued the wires in place so they wouldn't rip
loose. Then I had a "connector board" that was approximately the same
size as the original, with the obligatory wires 'wired up', and a connector.

I've seen examples where people solder surface mount components in a
similar way, using the cardboard as a 'jig', with wires in parallel.
Then you place the IC (or whatever) across the top, solder it in place,
then flip it over and cut wires. If it's a 16-pin IC, the opposing pins
would be shorted so you cut between them to "un-short". It's just a way
of making it so you can use SMT components in a breadboard, or make
prototypes with them and NOT have to get a board built (when no breakout
is available).


AND NOW, the UNOFFICIAL F.A.Q. - I haven't posted in a while, and I do
this particular post periodically.

-----------

PUBLIC SERVICE RE-POST BY ONE OF THOSE WHO REMEMBER!
( original post by "Hippykill" <mik...@nospam.digex.net> 27 Feb 1998
23:32:10 GMT )

NOTE: some of the links may no longer function... sorry.

The UNOFFICIAL
Alt.hackers FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS file
Last updated 3/27/1997, formatting cleaned up 11/02/2001

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. ADMINISTRIVIA
1) What is this document?
2) Where can I find another copy of it?
3) Who the hell are you and why are you posting this?
4) Isn't there already a FAQ for this group?

B. IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
1) What is alt.hackers for?
2) What is a hacker?
3) Why can't I post to this group?
4) What is an Obhack, and why do I need one?
5) Where can I get more information on hacking and hackers?
6) But where do I find the k-rad 3l1t3 hacks, d00d?

A. ADMINISTRIVIA

1) What is this document?

This document answers the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the
Usenet newsgroup alt.hackers. This is an unofficial FAQ--there is an
official one that is available on the World Wide Web (see below).
This document is not covered by any copyright whatsoever--feel free
to copy it, distribute it freely, change it, or sell it for dollars.

2) Where can I find another copy of it?

Most FAQs are available for anonymous ftp from the archive site

ftp://rtfm.mit.edu

I have made it available at my personal website. Here is a URL that
should get you a copy:

http://www.access.digex.net/~mikelea/hackfaq.txt

3) Who the hell are you and why are you posting this?

My name is Michael Lea, and I'm posting this because no one else is.
There is an official FAQ that is available on the web and is
supposedly posted every two weeks to the group--however, I haven't
seen it posted in a long time, so I wrote this unofficial FAQ.

4) Isn't there already a FAQ for this group?

Yes. It is available on the Web at the following URL:

http://www.fullfeed.com/~gregc/alt-hackers-faq.html

There is also an official maintainer of the official FAQ, who mailed
me a slight flame about my posting of my unofficial FAQ, but I lost
his address. I'd like to continue posting this document, because I
never see the official FAQ posted to the group. If anyone has serious
problems with me posting this, mail me at mik...@access.digex.net.

B. IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

1) What is alt.hackers for?

Alt.hackers is a forum for hackers to discuss (i.e. brag about)
current, past, and future projects. It is also a place to ask for
help in your current projects, _not_ including your homework!
The only limitation to this discussion is that it should relate in
some way to hacking (see next question) and include a
description of a hack you've done (see the discussion of
Obhacks, further down).

2) What is a hacker?

Good question. A hacker is someone who hacks. What is hacking?
Well, there is a definition of hack in the Jargon File/New Hacker's
Dictionary that tries to cover it. The Jargon File is an awesome
resource for anyone interested in computers, so you should go read it.
Here's the URL:

HTTP://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon.html

In short, hacking is about using available technology in a creative
way to solve a problem. It can be a stupid problem and an ugly
solution, as long as it is a new and creative solution. Hacking
extends to all forms of technology, not just computers--using the
thighbone of an antelope to bash in the head of another antelope was
an excellent hack. Now that I've given a short definition of what
hacking is, I can try and tell you what isn't a hack. Hacking is not
about breaking things. It isn't about denial of service attacks or
pirated software or deleting or stealing other people's data. If you
are interested in doing any of these things, alt.hackers is going to
bore you. Try the alt.2600.* hierarchy if you're looking for that
sort of conversation. And call yourself a cracker, not a hacker.

3) Why can't I post to this group?

Because we don't want you here <grin>. Actually, alt.hackers is a
moderated group, so you'll have to figure out how to get around the
moderator to post here. No, I'm not the moderator and you're not
going to find out who is. It is a trivial hack to post here, so you're
going to look really stupid if you mail me or anyone else on the group
asking how to do it. Figure it out for yourself! One caveat:
Please don't post a million test messages to the group. Use
alt.dev.null for testing purposes. It is set up just like
alt.hackers, and you won't look stupid if you post a million test
messages there. If you can post to alt.dev.null but can't post to
alt.hackers, tell your newsadmin that alt.dev.null is set up wrong on
your machines. Thanks to Andrew Gierth <and...@erlenstar.demon.co.uk>
for the current status of alt.dev.null!

4) What is an Obhack, and why do I need one?

Obhack is short for Obligatory Hack. Every post in alt.hackers is
required to include some sort of discussion of hacking, so most
people put an Obhack on the end of their message to meet this
requirement. If you don't include a hack with your message, you are
going to look really stupid and you're going to get a lot of email
telling you that you need to have one. Do you really want all the
other hackers who read the group to think that you are too stupid
to come up with a hack? BTW, posting to the group is not considered
to be a hack. You will be flamed if you try to use that as your
Obhack.

5) Where can I get more information on hacking and hackers?

As noted above, the Jargon File/New Hacker's Dictionary is an
excellent source. For information on the Internet, check out the
RFC's. These are the documents that describe every protocol and
most of the services available on the Internet. David Cary
<ca...@agora.rdrop.com> was nice enough to mail me some URLs that
point to sources of the RFCs:

[begin quote from David Cary]

Index to RFCs
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/information/rfc.html

Some more RFCs
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/

You can ftp to:
ftp://nic.ddn.mil/rfc

or you could get it off the web at:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc-index.html

http://ds.internic.net/ds/rfc-index.html
"gives access to all published RFC's."

[end quote]

And Daniel Brown <d...@eskimo.com> was nice enough to mail me
this info:

[begin quote from Daniel Brown]

Check out the hacking-related documentation on Eric Raymond's FAQ
collection (http://www.ccil.org/~esr/faqs/index.html).
"How To Become A Hacker" and "A Brief History of Hackerdom" are
articles which you should take a look at.

[end quote]


6) But where do I find the k-rad 3l1t3 hacks, d00d?

A lot of people have mailed me looking for information on breaking
into computers and other security issues. Remember, if you break
something on purpose, you're not a hacker.
If you are looking for information on "the computer underground" and
aren't really interested in intelligent conversation, alt.2600.* is
for you. If you really are interested in computer security issues
and think that you are smart enough to understand these issues, you
should check out:

http://www.l0pht.com
http://underground.org
comp.security.misc
comp.security.unix
Also, check out the Jargon File:
http://locke.ccil.org/jargon/index.html
and look up the entries for "hacker" and "cracker" and then look at
the sections on "Helping Hacker Culture Grow" and "Crackers, Phreaks,
and Lamers".
(thanks to Phil Edwards <pedw...@cs.wright.edu> for help with this
answer)
--
*mik...@access.digex.net* "imperious, angry, furious, extreme in
all things, with a disturbance in the moral imagination unlike any
the world has ever known-there you have me in a nutshell: and one
more thing, kill me or take me as I am, because I will not
change." - de Sade

[Eli the Bearded]

In alt.hackers, Big Bad Bob <BigBadBob-at...@testing.local> wrote:
> So what did I do?
>
> 3 stripped wire-wrap wires (30ga solid strand) going through holes in a
> piece of cardboard cut from a radio shack prototyping board bubble wrap
> thingy, placed "just right", made it possible to solder 3 pins onto them
> (after a LOT of profane Navy terms were thrown at it). I superglued the
> connector in place after verifying the pins went over the wires as they
> should. Then I soldered the wires (with a bit of difficulty and a lot
> of flux). Then I superglued the wires in place so they wouldn't rip
> loose. Then I had a "connector board" that was approximately the same
> size as the original, with the obligatory wires 'wired up', and a connector.

Interesting technique. I'm not sure I'd be up to it. I really hate
detail soldering work.

I've recently been experimenting with book arts. I've been making
miniature books. This is straight-forward bookbinding, albeit similar
in scale to soldering 30ga wire. The smallest I've made is about 15mm x
30mm x 5mm (spine height, cover width, thickness), with a cover made
from a banknote (Qatar 1 Riyal note).

So far just blank pages, but I have been considering printing (via laser
printer) actual content for them. Done properly I should be laying the
content out to be printed, folded, then trimmed into folios. I've looked
up how best to do this on my system (Linux, using largely non-GUI tools)
and decided I'll probably be using pstops to transform existing
postscript documents and using psdim from the upprint package to work
out the math of the "imposition" (the technical term for how to layout
the pages to get them to turn out in the right order when printing 4, 8,
16, etc, to a sheet and then folding and trimming).

pstops is a fairly standard tool, your package manager should have it.

upprint: http://www.mathstat.dal.ca/~selinger/upprint/

That still leaves how to store / display minibooks. More in a second.

Besides miniature books, I've also been modifying books. Things like
cutting holes through many pages to create windows to view phrases
deep inside the books. This is damnned hard to do neatly. When you
open a book, the pages shift, so where to cut changes. Then you have
the issue of cutting exactly deep enough and not too far.

Using an x-acto knife works up to a certain point, beyond about 20
pages it gets tricky to keep going. Using sharp wood chisels, a la
papel picado can get much deeper, but it is still hard to not overcut.

Here's my hack:

Experimenting I've found that if you sandwich the pages between two
pieces of thin wood and then tightly clamp, you can use many other
wood working techniques. I've been using scrap 1/4" plywood, then
drilling and sawing.

Using this method I was able to take a discarded text book (1980s
accounting text) and hollow it out. Clamp, drill corners, use a
reciprocating saw to cut center out. Before unclamping, I painted
white glue on the cut edges to keep them fixed. Then I built a mini
bookshelf into hollow book from craft plywood (1/8" for box and
shelves and 1/32" for trim).

Shown here in progress with mini bookends, four mini-books I've bound
and some commercial dollhouse books.

Six image composite starting from unclamped book.
492Kb, 2000x2250 pixels

http://i.imgur.com/Bt8zmhG.jpg

The second shelf from the bottom has my first three mini-books.

Elijah
------
willing to discuss bookbinding, too, if people are interested