The cheap and easy method I've used was to create three additional circuit boards for the tester pins. The bottom board had flat pads, the middle board was spaced slightly above the bottom board and had holes just larger than the pogo pins, and the top board was identical to the middle board, but spaced a little above the middle board. Drop the pogo pins in the holes and they make contact with the pads on the bottom PCB. One could replace the middle and top boards with delrin or some other insulating thick material as well. The boards had screws with nuts to space them, and at certain locations the screws would go past the top board to guide the unit under test onto the top board. I usually used nuts to hold the unit under test onto the tester, but one could also develop a hinged overboard that holds the unit under test correctly. The bottom board pads would terminate to appropiate connectors (in this case JTAG, power, and an RS-232 connector) I don't have the tester at hand, so I cannot provide pictures, hopefully the description is adequate. Previously I used a hardwood board. I drilled holes slight larger than the pogo pins, stuck one end of a stripped wire in the hole, then forced the pogo pin in. It was very fiddly, and rarely worked well so I went to the PCB method. But for a few test points that are well spaced apart, it should be fine. If you have the flexibility for your development to make sure a few mounting holes and all the test points are on a common 1/10" grid, then you could make a fairly simple generic test bed. -Adam On 10/28/06, Tom Wehn wrote: > We currently use a Huntron prober to test circuit boards and I would like to build a "Bed of Nails" to use with Labview to do detailed board testing. PIC will be involved somewhere. Has anyone built a tester from scratch or from a commercial frame? Any tips, or traps? boards are typically 6 X 8" and contain 10 to 15 16 pin DIP chips and 15 to 25 PTH diodes and resistors. All boards are double sided with components all on one side with an obsolete 22 pin board connector on one end. I think under 100 pins would cover my needs but that number may go up if the tester works. Looking to develop a tester for one board and expand it to test several different but related boards. > > Thanks in advance! > > Tom > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist