SOT23-6 to 8 pin DIP adaptor

Microchip have a range of small flash based microcontrollers such as the 10F220 that is supplied in an SOT23-6 package which is really difficult to program because of its small physical size. The 10F220 has 4/8 Mhz precision internal oscilator, 2 onboard 8 bit ADC, watchdog timer and 25 ma source/sink capability which makes it a surprisingly useful little device. A quick search on EBay will find you a programming adaptor for about US$50 or so, which is a bit steep considering that you would only use it for prototyping.

Here is a quick and dirty home built one I made from odd stuff that I had laying around. Click on a thumbnail to have a closer look.

The conductive strip is from an old Nokia cell phone, it is a polymer 'zebra' rubber strip which has fine gold plated wires imbedded in its surface. I removed a few strands in line with the gaps on the SOT23-6 package and cut two pieces just slightly longer than the package. I then etched a small PCB onto which I carefully soldered the two strips. The top section is a bit of PCB with a rectangular hole cut in to it and then glued to the etched PCB with epoxy. The high tech lid was cut from an old credit card and the hinge is a lead from a resistor. The lid is held tightly closed by means of two tiny but powerful magnets from an old disk drive (they lock the actuator arm in home position when  the head is parked) and the black pressure pad on the inside top of the lid was also from the mobile phone.

All up it took about an hour or so to do (etched PCB included) Low tech, low cost but very effective.