DIP through-hole chips are an old package with instantly recognizable dual in-line pin rows.  Beginners love these chips because they’re large and look easy to solder; we abhor them because we hate messing around with the drill. Whatever your motivation for using a through-hole chip, use a socket whenever possible. A circuit board with socketed chips is easy to test without endangering the parts, and ICs can be removed, tested, and replaced, without resorting to a soldering iron. This week, by request, we looked at several common through-hole chip sockets.

DIP sockets are available in almost any pin-count, or you can use individual strips to make a custom size (Mouser #40-0518-10). ICs with less than 40 pins usually have .300″ row spacing, but many 40+ pin ICs are .600″ wide. Footprints are included in the Cadsoft Eagle default ic-package library as DILxx. Below is a list of our most commonly used DIP sockets.

8 pin .300″ socket (Mouser#571-1-390261-2, $0.14) This socket is useful for op-amps and small microcontrollers, like the 12F629 used in the Esquire e-paper cover.

14 pin .300″ socket (Mouser #571-1-390261-3, $0.15) Another small socket we occasionally need.

18 pin .300″ socket (Mouser #571-1-390261-5, $0.18) A very common chip size for lots of microcontrollers and 7400 series parts

28 pin .300″ socket (Mouser #571-1-390261-9, $0.30) Another common size for through-hole microcontrollers, and chips like the TLC5940 16 channel pulse-width modulator. Check your datasheet because a .600″ row spacing 28 pin DIP package also exists.

40 pin .600″ socket (Mouser #571-1-390262-5, $0.41) Watch out, this is a wide socket for chips with .600″ row spacing. Fits common 40 pin chips, like the PIC 18F4455 USB microcontroller.

Don’t forget to check out our previous parts posts.