Don't make these dumb mistakes!

[squidsquad]

I'm embarrassed to admit this...but may save someone some grief:
I was marveling at how loud Ruby was when plugged into the external speaker jack of my twin...but went to bed & forgot to unplug it.  Next day fired up the Twin.  Needless to say...the 386 chip didn't enjoy having 100 watts shoved up it's butt (would YOU??)!
Luckily it was socketed & I had a spare...but speaking of sockets:
Couldn't find ones with long legs...bought some short legged ones.  Why do they even MAKE these?  Them mothers only protruded about 1/32 of an inch out of the perfboard.  Talk about frustrating.  Sure honed my micro-soldering skills though!  Couldn't believe I got it to work...but it took hours...DUH!

[ubertar]

That's what I've got too-- those damn short-legged sockets. WTF? I had to rebuild mine, so this time I lengthened the legs first by soldering wires to the legs before starting. PITA, but it works.

[AL]

I actually like the short leg sockets. No cutting. I use masking tape to hold them down and then solder away - no problems at all.

What don't you like about them?

AL

[squidsquad]

Either my board was too thick...or the legs too short...but there wasn't enough poking thru to clamp a wire to.  Just had to lay it there...hoping the solder soaked in...which is bad technique.

[squidsquad]

Oh....I might mention...I don't *print & etch*.   I'm sure they're fine for that.

[ubertar]

I found that if you use a rotary tool to widen the holes on the perfboard, you can fit a wire into the hole along with the socket leg, so you're not just trying to solder to a nub.

[David]

Try wire-wrap sockets, boys!