hybrid male/female 24 pin headers ?

[vladn]

I've seen many prototyping boards with the hybrid male/female sockets (one side of the board is male, the other - female) that allow stacking more than 2 boards together (theoretically infinite).
I am thinking of building a general coverage RX "shield" that will stay in between the Teensy 3.6 and its Audio adapter (partly as an additional analog ground shield), but in such way that I can take the RX shield away and still plug the Teensy and the Audio adapter together.

Could you point me to the right part number ?

Regards,
Vlad

 

[MichaelMeissner]

I've bought stacking headers from the following places. Generally, you cannot find 24 pin stacking headers, so you need to order stacking headers with more than 24 pins, pull out the 25th pin, and use diagonal cutters to get it down to size. Then you use a rotary tool (like dremel) to sand down the rough edges:

• dpimicro, 40 pin: http://www.dipmicro.com/store/HDR40X1FL
• adafruit, 36 pin: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3366

Dipmicro is a Canadian company (in Niagara Falls Canada) but they have somebody come over to the US side and do US post office mail 3 times a week. For just the headers themselves, Adafruit's shipping costs tend to be more expensive, and I usually bundle other things in the order. Alternatively, you can often get their products through distributors like digikey.

 

[vladn]

Thanks a lot, could not find them at the usual distributors for some reason. Cutting is not a problem, done it before.
One more question - is there a convention about using male / female sides on the Teensy and the Audio adapter ?

 

[MichaelMeissner]

Thanks a lot, could not find them at the usual distributors for some reason. Cutting is not a problem, done it before.
One more question - is there a convention about using male / female sides on the Teensy and the Audio adapter ?

I dunno, it depends on what you want to do. I generally have male pins/stacking headers on the Teensy, and mount it into a breadboard or PCB with female headers. Back when I used the audio shield, I put stacking pins on that, and mounted the audio shield on top of the Teensy.

In terms of PCBs for the Teensy 3.5/3.6, I haven't used them as much, but I like the following PCBs that let me mount female headers, and bring out the various pins in convenient groupings:

• DrAzzy, dip40 board: https://www.tindie.com/products/DrAzzy/prototyping-board-with-breakaway-mounting-tabs/
• DrAzzy, 2" x 4" board, all through hole: https://www.tindie.com/products/DrAzzy/2-x-4-prototypingproject-boards/
• DrAzzy, mint time board, through hole version: https://www.tindie.com/products/DrAzzy/mint-tin-size-prototyping-board/
• Adafruit, full size perma-protoboard, 3 pack: https://www.adafruit.com/product/590
• Adafruit, full size perma-protoboard, single: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1606
• EZasPieProto (I haven't bought this one): https://www.tindie.com/products/mikronauts/ezaspieproto300-large-bussed-prototyping-board/

Busboard has some prototype boards, but they tend to be single sided, so I prefer the double sided versions listed above.

With the 3.2, I like the DrAzzy dip-28 board, which gives 15 rows of pins, and on each each there are 8 pins + 2 power rails that can be brought out. With the dip-40 board, the width is more, and you can bring out 10 pins + 2 power rails at the end.

 

[vladn]

Thinking of stacking connectors I'll probably put the male side on the bottom of the Teesny. This way I can plug it in a standard prototyping board and also have better access to the connectors/buttons etc in a stack of 3 boards.

Just got the Si5338 running via I2C with a different vendor (TI) board - that was the key for the mk2 of my upconverting superhet RX (the mk1 runs on Teensy 3.1). I'll likely make a PCB for mk2 and stack it between the Teensy 3.5/3.6 and the Audio adapter. The analog part of the RX board will be on the "bottom" i.e. the Audio adapter side and shielded by a copper plane from the uP.

 

[anthonysavatar]

I've been enjoying using these proto boards. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06Y2CYYLZ/

They have double sided through holes. On one side is a horizontal trace on the other vertical. Holes can be connected to the traces with small solder blobs and or traces can be cut. It makes for very slim builds without many wires needed.

Edit: here is a recent example I did mounting some buttons: https://forum.mystorm.uk/t/video-gaming-lcd-audio-shield-for-mystorm-blackice/309/5?u=anthonysavatar

 

[oric_dan]

I've bought stacking headers from the following places. Generally, you cannot find 24 pin stacking headers, so you need to order stacking headers with more than 24 pins, pull out the 25th pin, and use diagonal cutters to get it down to size. Then you use a rotary tool (like dremel) to sand down the rough edges:
...........

Or 3/ea 8-pin headers, easier to find but may be a bit more expensive. I bought 100/ea of 8-pin and 100/ea 6-pin stackers from ebay a couple of years ago, and been using them on everything. Similar to these, look around ....
https://www.ebay.com/itm/50pcs-10-P...nector-socket-for-Arduino-2-54mm/192385773921
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-6-Pi...Connector-Socket-Arduino-Shield-/192385748621

 

[MichaelMeissner]

Or 3/ea 8-pin headers, easier to find but may be a bit more expensive. I bought 100/ea of 8-pin and 100/ea 6-pin stackers from ebay a couple of years ago, and been using them on everything. Similar to these, look around ....
https://www.ebay.com/itm/50pcs-10-P...nector-socket-for-Arduino-2-54mm/192385773921
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-6-Pi...Connector-Socket-Arduino-Shield-/192385748621

If you buy smaller headers, you will have to sand the end parts where the pins join, in order for the headers to fit together without missing a pin.

 

[oric_dan]

If you buy smaller headers, you will have to sand the end parts where the pins join, in order for the headers to fit together without missing a pin.

Yes, the ends are slightly more than 1/2 the distance between pins. However, still probably easier than cutting with pliers and trimming with a Dremel. I just took 2 of the female headers, and held them together with the pins pointing in "opposite" directions and held them at a slight angle (to produce mating bevels), and it took about 8-sec to sandpaper (100 grit) the edges so they'd fit on a male header. Pretty easy.