Dip Socket for spark core

Hey Guys
I’m looking for buying a Dip socket for the spark core to build a new board so I can plug the spark core over it. Please do you know a website that has this socket?
Thanks a lot.

Have you considered female headers like these?
http://www.adafruit.com/products/598

This is what’s used on most shields by Particle and others.

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I really hate those headers. While cheap they are really tall and don’t break apart easily. I prefer this (albeit more expensive) female headers: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/0/SAM1093-50-ND They break apart easily.

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I like Swiss machine pin socket headers like these:

Higher cost, but much better retention and contact. Note that they are cheaper in volume.

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Thanks for all of you. I’ll review them and see which one fits for me.

Alternatively, you could buy a regular 24-pin DIP socket (get the 0.6" row spacing, not the SKINNYDIP 0.3" spacing). The fun comes when we have to find a 36-pin socket for the Electron–while out there, they are not cheap!

24-pin DIP sockets can be had for as little as 59¢ apiece from Mouser.

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Hi @WebDust21

The Particle products are 0.800" pin-to-pin in width so a standard 0.600" DIP socket needs to get cut in half to be used. I don’t know of any 0.800" wide DIP sockets.

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@bko. I’m feeling like a klutz today. Maybe I ought just to keep silent :dizzy_face:. But thanks for the catch, as I was about to order some 0.6" sockets, and feel so sure of myself…
Sorry for posting misinfo!

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One last comment…this is what I’ll probably do for a socket. If you buy a 24-pin 0.6" socket, it’s a simple matter to split it down the middle (a pair of dikes will do the trick), and space the resulting “12-pin headers” at 0.8" spacing in the circuit board.

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@WebDust21, this was what Brian meant with that :wink:

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Another suggestion from digikey. Or China.

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@bko, I have a bunch of those but they don’t accept the standard male headers and I have had problems finding the machined male headers (in bulk and cheap).

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OK, I got my Cores mounted in a PCB. Guess what I used for a socket?

…I desoldered some 28-pin 0.3" sockets from an old PC motherboard (remember when you plugged actual DRAM chips into the board??), split them down the middle, and cut two rows off one end. Presto: super-custom 24-pin DIP sockets spaced 0.8" for the Core. Didn’t cost anything except my time (and a little solder).

The solder tail (?) DIP sockets I used accept the Core’s headers with no problem. Sure, the thick leads compress the “leaves” a little bit (you can tell that a Core was plugged in), but it holds the Core quite well. FWIW, when plugged into the socket, the top of the Core is just over 0.5" above the PCB. Those sockets look like this:

Another common type of sockets is the solder cup…I don’t think it’ll work for the Core’s headers:

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Minor correction for anyone looking for a socket and runs into this thread. At least for the Particle Photon, the row width is .7", not .8". I have yet to find a socket that is .7" so I am using a .6" wide open frame socket, and just cutting them. That gives a very low profile mating, and is very inexpensive. $0.13 each in quantity. PN ED24DT from On Shore Technology. Available from DigiKey.