I have heard that it is better to shear crystal leads than to nip them.
Use cutters whose blade pass by like scissors, rather than blades that
meet head on.  I have never noticed a difference, but a always trim the
leads AFTER they are soldered.  I would expect any failure to occur
within a few seconds at most.

Sherpa Doug

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Benjamin Bromilow [mailto:btbromilow@LINEONE.NET]
> Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 11:52 AM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: [PIC]: Oscillator leads
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> How does anyone cut the leads on crystal oscillators? I used some wire
> cutters and after a week the crystal failed.... I've heard
> before that you
> need to do it a different way to avoid the shockwaves going
> up the lead and
> cracking the crystal but how does anyone do it?? Is it better to do it
> before soldering it in?? Alternatively if crystals are "weak" would a
> resonator be a better option in an automotive setting? What
> does anyone
> think??
>
> TIA,
> Ben
>
> ps I've programmed some 16F877s using the modified NOPPP
> software and they
> work just fine (the above was on 16F84s!).
> Source code: website.lineone.net/~btbromilow/noppp2.c
> Zipped executable website.lineone.net/~btbromilow/noppp2.zip
>
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>

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