As far as "what" the socket pins mentioned in the original post are, I'm fairly certain they are pins for PCB-mounted connectors. Normally, you would buy the entire connector, pins included. These particular pins are split at the end (good photo in Paul's link to the Ebay listing), and are "springy" so they can accommodate a range of tube-pin diameter/length. They only require a few grams of force to insert/remove (much less than the force required by a genuine tube socket), so there is minimal stress on your tube as long as you custom-fit each tube to a particular location. Even when tubes are switched around, there's no noticeable difference in insertion force.
>From the photo, you will see 3 regions of the socket pin (solder-tail, central barrel, upper clasp). I design my PCBs to accept the central 'barrel' section, solder in-place, then snip-off the tail. Be sure to make a hole, *with plenty of clearance*, in your PCB for the glass nib that exists on many tubes (IN-18, 7971). Be warned the nibs are not in the same location from tub-to-tube. I never bothered to look for another source; the price on Ebay is pretty good and the seller is reliable. I just bought another 250 of them a few weeks ago. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/412305ec-1e34-42d8-8e10-18c2927722a5%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
