Pogo Pin and Acrylic

[AtomSoft]

Before I go and hot glue some Pogo pins tonight.

Does anyone know of a good or better way to secure Pogo pins to some acrylic? Would crazy glue work? Or standard acrylic type glue?

Pogo looks good so I assume it is gold or copper.. so a metal to acrylic? I can clean Pogo with alcohol and use gloves to make sure it stays clean. Now what's the best glue to use?

 

[gophert]

Crazy glue is cyanoacrylate monomer with some solvent that will cause clear acrylic to haze. You can also buy "foam safe" cyanoacrylate glue (the active ingredient in crazy glue without the solvents or smell). You can buy this at hobby stores that sell RC airplane parts.

CA glue is really the best for bonding metals and plastics unless you plan on flexing the acrylic with dynamic loads.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

I've never found that they need gluing, if you use the correct drill size.

We make test jigs by using a spare blank PCB attached to the top of a plastic junction box, then drilling out the component holes where appropriate for test pins, through the board and box.

The wiring, power supply etc. fit inside the box.

We also add some plastic toggle clamps to hold the board being tested to the rig, if it has mains power on it or testing takes a significant time.

If you cannot get the test probes a good enough fit, I'd just add a tiny amount of bostik or similar contact adhesive on the back of the panel and rotate the test probe to give a bead all the way around.

That will prevent it moving, but you can still peel that off easily enough if you need to change the probe - they can get damaged quite easily. With a stronger adhesive you may wreck things trying to change one.

 

[Ian Rogers]

I've always found kraggle useless on most plastics... My son builds Warhammer models and uses plastic cement.. But I would tap the acrylic and use threaded pogo pins..

 

[KMoffett]

Acrylic glues are solvent based. These require both surfaces to be dissolves to bond.

 

[gophert]

cyanoacrylate bonds well to many metals, plus it bonds well to acrylic.
See link from Peemabond below for details on CA and other adhesives on acrylic substrates.

Successfully Bonding Acrylic with Industrial Adhesives

Learn how to successfully bond acrylic with Permabond industrial adhesives such as cyanoacrylate, epoxy adhesive, etc.

www.permabond.com

 

[gophert]

I've always found kraggle useless on most plastics

Yet, works wonderfully on acrylic.
I agree with you but few adhesives work well on Polypropylene, polyethylene, elastomers, crystalline nylons (most nylon), Delrin, it dissolves polystyrene unless you use "foam safe" CA - but again, it works very well with acrylics unless the acrylic is flexing significantly during use.
Also, dollar-store cubes of crazy glue, you get what you pay for. Formulation and packaging matters. Buy a brand name like Loctite/Henkel, 3M, Permabond, etc and look for the expiration date.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

You just have to use the right size drill. I used polycarbonate for a jig a made to make it easy to do hall effect measurements.

You can use a little bit of dishwashing soap and water for a drilling lubercant. You might want your drill to be at least 0.001" undersized. A standard # for a "press-fit".

 

[Wade Hassler]

The pins have a collar (bulge) in the cylindrical shape: this can be used by making a sandwich of two pieces of plastic.
Better to have an interference fit as in #3 above, but this'll work, too.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I actually used the ASR series. https://www.newark.com/everett-charles-tech/a-s-r/test-spring-probe-pcb-solder/dp/46F3776

I used adhesive copper to make two longitudinal contacts, one centered on one side and two on the other. We were cheap, so a 10 turn pot could null the other side. You had to select the right potentiometer. The samples were put on a microscope slide and connected with gold wires and silver adhesive.

i could make a bunch of samples and pop them into place.

 

[AtomSoft]

Hey guys I failed to mention I'm using a laser cutter to make it. I actually found some old 60sec universal glue that seemed to work great.

 

[AtomSoft]

Also...

 

[AtomSoft]

Finally.. .. of course I have it powered from its own USB port.. which isn't tied to USB of pic but a cp2104.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

At the risk of been obvious?, why not just have a row of pins on the PCB that the PICKit pushes on to? - that's all I do. For production boards, using through hole PIC's, I leave the pins out and program the PIC before soldering it in (using a ZIF adaptor) - if it needs updating in the future, I can solder the pins in afterwards, or even just hold them in place while it programs.

 

[AtomSoft]

Hey Nigel, i understand that. I just wanted to make the board a certain size and i left the ICSP for last and totally forgot about it. So i ended up using little space i had left without having to redesign anything at all. This saved me time at that moment. Also i like the fact that its not too easy to reprogram. Makes it feel more professional lol i know thats just silly but ... meh...

This pcb is already made.. months ago to be honest. Just now with Virus all up and about. im stuck here and might as well play a lot with what i have. Ill make Revision 2 with a quicker ICSP port. Hence the other post about the bootloader stuff., one programming of the bootloader would allow future updates. So ICSP wouldnt be a hassle... just need 1 unit for debugging.

I might see if i can make my own bootloader or switch MCU to something popular with a premade bootloader. Not sure yet.. Lots to read. I honestly have Linker stuff and Interrupts etc....

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I played with bootloaders a LONG time ago - the PICKit2/3/4 and MPLAB have really rendered them pretty pointless, and any bootloader is always going to be a waste of space you could use for your main program.

 

[AtomSoft]

That is true. But i do plan on selling some products in the future and would be nice if it wasnt a hassle for a user, even if they are PIC friendly.. didnt have to use a PICkit to reprogram it. Would be nice simple app on PC with USB to UART.. few seconds and bam! update installed.