At 05:29 AM 10/26/02 +1000, Roman Black wrote: >Hi, just a warning to lube your PicStart Plus >ZIF socket, i've just broken mine through wear >and tear it seems. Has done maybe 5,000 chips. > >One of the 2 rivets, the one closest to the >lever has worked slightly loose and now the top >plate of the mechanism lifts instead of opening >sideways as it should. One of mine failed exactly that way a year or so ago. I simply used a small diameter long screw with a flat washer to replace hold the movable top of the socket onto its base. Both rivets failed on the one I just looked at. There is an oval hole in the flat portion of the socket on the end where the lever is, with enough material on the base to hold threads. All the lifting force is at the lever end of the socket anyways, so it was worth a try. The other end of the socket is not secured but has never been a problem. I simply removed the loose rivets, then heated a 4-40 screw with a soldering iron and threaded it into the plastic base, using that oval hole right next to the release lever. Using the hot screw to cut the threads was easier than using a thread tap (which would have required removing the socket from the PCB). The holes that used to contain the rivets are now both empty. While I had the socket apart, I applied just a touch of white grease on the inside surfaces where the lever pushes on the plastic as it rotates. The idea was to try to minimize the lifting force on the movable piece as the lever moves. Its been working just fine ever since. dwayne -- Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax Celebrating 18 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2002) .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .- `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address. This message neither grants consent to receive unsolicited commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.