开云体育

Hi, gang,

I am planning to do some building / prototyping this winter season and I'm looking for simple solutions to connecting off-PCB controls, LEDs, non-RF jacks, etc.

I will be mostly building Manhattan style and surface-mount style in which I will etch or mill a PCB, but all parts will be mounted on the copper side in Manhattan/SMT hybrid style.

I'm trying to figure out a workable way to incorporate header pins, singly or in groups of 2-3 adjacent header pins, in this kind of SMT construction style. With through-hole PCBs the drilled holes provide an easy way to mount the header pins. But how do we do this in an SMT/Manhattan style?

Are there header pins with flat bottoms (like tiny patio umbrella stands), or should I take a standard header and bend the "legs" 90 degrees, soldering the now-flat legs to the PCB?

Assuming I get that issue sorted, can anyone recommend an affordable tool to crimp the pins onto the remote wires? I'm thinking about computer motherboards here, in which the tiny crimped pins are inserted into a plastic header/socket that allows them to be plugged onto the header pins on the motherboard.

I think there's also a small "pick tool" that allow the pins to be inserted and removed from the plastic headers?

I'm a titch out of date when it comes to these critters, so any insights would be appreciated.

Regards,

--Kirk, NT0Z
? Rochester, MN