What are sockets for?

Grathan · Post by **Grathan** » 23 Oct 2008, 03:16

I beg for pardon of my ignorance, but I ask what seems trivial to me.

I'd like to get into pedal building and am ordering a bunch of parts to get me started. I'll be using a bread board (I've never seen the likes of one before) to test out various designs. I see that IC chips have prongs under them. There is also sockets which have prongs under them? Am I right to assume that a ic chip needs to be in a socket?

salocin · Post by **salocin** » 23 Oct 2008, 05:53

ICs do not need to be in sockets, but it makes life a lot easier if you ever need or want to swap the IC with a different one or if it stops working. definitely recommended.

edit: it's not necessary to socket the IC when working on a breadboard, just recommended when you're putting a circuit board together and soldering things in place

Grathan · Post by **Grathan** » 23 Oct 2008, 06:42

Ah I think I see now, the sockets just allow a snap in and out without desoldering/resoldering.

thanks so much.