solder pins for stripboard to breadboard

Question

This might be a really daft question but...

My breadboard accepts 0.6-0.8 wire sizes. I have a load (about 50) SMD chips soldered to breakout boards, the boards have 1mm holes for pins, same as standard stripboard. I want to test all of these chips on a breadboard circuit- but the solder pins are 1mm and don't fit into the breadboard! Any such thing as a pin that is 1mm at one end, but thinner at the other? What would such a pin be called? Is my breadboard just abnormal? Any better ideas on how to test all these breakout boards?

Bonus points if the parts/pins are sourcable in the UK too!

Answer 1

If I understand right you have some breakout boards with 1mm holes, and are wanting to find a suitable header to solder on in order to plug them into your breadboard and use them in a circuit.

If the above is correct (correct me if not) then simply use standard unshrouded 2.54mm pitch headers, the fact that the holes in the breakout board are 1mm won't matter for soldering purposes.

If it's a test jig you want, then the pogo pins (and proper PCB) are probably the way to go.

Answer 2

The pins shown below are known, not totally surprisingly, as test pins.
Also pogo pins and no doubt many other names.

You can mount a collection of suitably sized ones on a test jig and press it against the board to test. (For vast production volumes these may be used in a latch in place test unit but you can often hold them in place by handdepending on what testing is required.

They are spring loaded so will take up differences in tolerance. They slide into sockets of their own - you solder the socket in place and can then exchange the testpins as required.

Test pin from here - many more at this link.

These are from here

Answer 3

In my experience most breadboards will accept 1mm (square) pins, but after that I don't trust them to make good contact with smaller diameter component pins. And for breakoutboards with >8 pins it gets very difficult to remove the breakout from the breadboard when it has 1mm pins. Hence I prefer the pins shown below. (And I sell 'm in my webshop. But I guess every component seller will have these.) On one side the pins are a little bit sharp and the base of the pin is conical, on the other side the base is flat. The flat side goes towards the (breakout) PCB.

Answer 4

Forget the solderless breadboard and mount some suitable sockets on stripboard. Or, design a PCB and get one made. They are available very cheaply from some suppliers.

Answer 5

The standard size for pins in header strips is 0.64mm square, so those would fit your breadboard (assuming your 0.6-0.8 are actually in mm).

There are higher quality screw machine terminal strips with round pins, which tend to have a smaller diameter, about 0.5mm. IMHO they are nicer for this purpose, but they are harder to find and more expensive.

Actually 0.6 to 0.8mm seems quite big for a breadboard, as most electronic parts have thinner leads.