Temporary Component Mount for Testing Circuits/New Designs

Came across a slick way to make it easy to swap out key components when testing circuits/new designs. Thought I'd pass it along.

I've tried a number of ways to do this, with all the usual temporary component mounts/fixtures (screw down terminals, IC pins, etc). They often work. But sometimes - especially with PCBs - they're clunky or won't work at all, depending on the layout, through-hole location(s), etc.

Female D-sub connector pins have split shafts that allow expansion for the male prong (keep it clean, now). The solder type (as opposed to the crimp-end type) have straight shafts that will fit many sizes of through holes, depending on the pin density of the D-sub connector they were designed for (from 0.38mm up to 3.81mm). Soldered into PCB though holes, two of these pins make a nice, quick-change component mount. The length may create problems of RFI pickup in some circuits, but for many situations they can work with no problems.

Not a universal solution, but definitely another arrow in the quiver.

Mouser part #  571-665693.  Datasheet there shows various sizes, although they aren't all available through Mouser.

Pics to show what I mean:





BT

Neat. You could even make your own tag board this way.

Cheers

Ian

You could also use a Mill-Max receptacle w/ no tail.

Nice idea.

Taking a longview, I was thinking of something along these lines for the inevitable replacement of  lytics. 

Very good idea for add-on-test components!

Thanks!

Jakob E.