MikeOhio

Sergey, Like everyone else, I was impressed with your solution to a simpler solution to installing a ZIF socket. Impressed enough that I made one of my own and it works well. I'm fortunate enough to have a CNC machine so I routed out a pc board instead of using perf board. The pc board is double-sided and I routed the traces on both sides. Because I can't do thru-plating I used the male pins to provide connectivity to both sides of the board - just soldered the pins on both side of the board. I also included pads for the crystal and 1206 caps should I ever want to mount the crystal direc

Apologies if these pix aren't as clear as they could be. I use this launch pad with my proto board so it normally stays plugged in to it all of the time. That's the reason the header pins are on the bottom. Mike

I have had exactly the opposite results. I was able to replace the DIP socket with a ZIF socket on 3 Launch Pads. My ZIF sockets are also Textool clones marked 'TFXTDOL". My sockets fit tight but inserted without a problem. On the first DIP socket that I replaced I'll admit that I missed getting all of the solder off of one pin when removing the DIP socket and managed to lift a trace. The top pad and thru-plating lifted when I pried up the DIP socket. Luckily it was pin 11 and I was able to just install a fly-wire on the bottom of the board between the ZIF socket pin and the header pad fo