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My first completed KiCad project: A breadboard adapter for Aries low-profile ZIF sockets
(codeberg.org)
I've been working on Ben Eater's breadboard 6502 computer project for a little while. The pins on the EEPROM sometimes get bent when I pry it out of the breadboard to reprogram it. I was afraid that they'd break eventually, so I looked into getting a Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) socket to put on the board, which should be gentler on the EEPROM's pins. Ran into a few problems though:
- The pins on ZIF sockets are too short to seat properly on a breadboard. They're designed to be soldered into a printed circuit board.
- I found a few designs for adapter PCBs that allow a ZIF socket to be used on a breadboard. They're all sized for the common green ZIF sockets, which take up a lot of extra space compared to the chip that they hold.
- Aries Electronics makes low-profile ZIF sockets that are very compact, but I couldn't find any adapters designed for them.
I eventually decided to solve that last one myself, and I figured I'd share the design in case anyone else might find it useful:
Congrats on the completed project! KiCAD is so cool. Who did you use for PCB fabrication?
Thank you. I agree, it is a really impressive piece of software.
I went with JLCPCB. Cost about $5 for the 5 boards with shipping, which took two weeks. I just added some additional instructions to the readme about getting the boards manufactured. The process seemed daunting before I did it, but it turned out to be really easy.