> On Mar 13, 2022, at 11:55 AM, Neil QQ <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> If you are concerned about mechanical pin/socket retention to the pcb, 
> plated-through mounting holes with oversized top and bottom pads help quite a 
> bit.  You can always use eyelets in lieu of plated-through holes.  In any 
> case you should certainly solder the pin or socket to the pcb for mechanical 
> strength.

My first real job was repairing cable TV amplifiers and their power supplies. 
One Jerrold power supply baffled all of us. Whacking the dear life out of it 
caused it to turn off every once in a while for a split-second. I spent three 
hours going over it to no avail. Two co-workers racked up another couple of 
hours and gave it back to me. The attitude was that it was my problem.

Then I got lucky. It stopped working completely so I immediately killed the 
power (60V square wave AC) and began checking the continuity between pads, 
gingerly touching them with the tips of the test leads. The bridge rectifier 
was a high current, stud-mounted type with four thick leads running through 
eyelets in the PC board. I quickly discovered that there was no continuity from 
one leg of the BR to the surrounding pad despite the fresh solder on the 
eyelet. We did try to re-crimp it using the wrong tools as we didn't have the 
right one. Ultimately, I had to use way more solder than usual. 

This breakthrough in the history of solid-state electronics was the subject of 
a memo to all employees in the Line Repair Division of Dept. 3 the next day. 
The shift manager managed to bungle that up by mis-spelling a word in the 
memo's title, "Eyelit Mod".

Total time for the labor on this fixed-cost repair was something like six 
hours, four times what was allotted for a line amp and/or PS. My boss was just 
happy to get the thing out the door. And we never saw it happen again.


Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

"Damn, damn, damn, DAMN!"—Professor Henry HIggins, My Fair Lady

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