Making High Quality Laser Diode Sockets.

[PNjunction]

I've been waiting for the opportunity to post to this thread again, and this afternoon provided it. I've just replaced the fried diode in my plastic box pointer, and it's now sportin' a two-legged socket, ala The Doctor.

A few weeks ago, I visited what is likely the most awesome electronics warehouse in the region. KRP Electronics Supermart. Been wanting to stop in for a good while as mostly all we have around here is Rat Shack (You've got questions, we've got blank stares!). While there, I started explaining to the owner that some of my little projects require parts not easily found... one being an IC DIP socket that I would cut up to make diode sockets. I also expressed a preference for a non-RoHS item.

With a knowing grin, he said "hold on, I think I have just the thing", disappeared into the gigantic back room (the warehouse section), and emerged a couple minutes later with a Samtec 10-pin SIP, which he proceeded to give me for free! The pins are gold plated internally, and although they're standard length, not "solder tail", it nonetheless wasn't very tricky soldering on the leads.

The cool thing about this SIP is there are notches between the housings for each pin, that allows you to easily snap off however many pins you may need with just firm finger pressure. No cutting and sanding involved!

I had completely forgotten about the shrink spacing of .07, so it's the standard .1, but no matter... the diode pins are long and flexible enough to slide in with no issue.

So there we have it. We're rockin' the sockets now.

Thanks for the excellent idea, Doc!

[The_Doctor]

Good stuff. Those socket strips are convenient, those are pretty much what I was hoping for but I couldn't find them in 0.7" so I decided it was worth getting the shrink DIP types and losing a pin at the cut point. It depends on how much you need to confine the sockets in tight spaces. Even the 0.7" is a bit big, that's the space across the diagonal of the square that has three of its corners defined by lead placement on the diode. The lose-one-pin method does leave a very tidy result though, whatever size we use.

In other news, I have the DIY PCB method sorted, I think, I'll launch a new thread for that as it's likely to be of wide interest for anyone making diode drivers and such.