All

I recently ordered PICProto-18, PICProto-Dual, and PICProto-64
from Micro Engineering. I was disappointed that the board layout
of all three does not lend itself to installing ZIF sockets. I'm
currently using Aries 28 and 40 pin sockets and AMP (Textool) 18 pin.

Here's what I've found:

        PICProto-18 and AMP 18 pin ZIF: Forget it. The socket covers
        the regulator, both power caps, and crouds the header pins.
        It would have been nice if provisions were made for a pull-up
        resistor for RTCC. A traces for brown out protection is
        probably asking too much since the board is so small, but a
        pull-up for this would have been nice.

        PICProto-Dual, AMP 18, and Aries 28: You cannot mount both
        sockets at the same time. Individually the following happens:
        AMP 18 covers cap C6, Aries 28 covers resistor R1. This can
        be worked around, but it is annoying. Either ZIF socket crouds
        it's header pins making connection to a ribbon cable impossible

        PICProto-64 and Aries 40: when ZIF is mounted correctly it
        covers the regulator REG1, cap C4, and resistor R2. Mounted
        backwards it still covers R2 and partially obscures C4.

If you don't intend to use these ZIF sockets the boards are great.
I will probably buy more in the future. If there are smaller sockets
(w/lever is a big plus) that someone has used sucessfully with these
boards I'd love to hear about it.

Michael J. Schreck