Daisy Eagle footprints have staggered drill holes for ... easier soldering?

Hardware Development
1

Hi folks. While using the Daisy Seed Eagle footprint I noticed that the drill holes for the headers are not aligned; they are staggered instead. I assume this is the same idea as: https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/114. I think I’ve also seen this called a “locking” design.

I’m using the library from https://daisy.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/libraries/Electrosmith_Boards.zip with Autodesk Eagle 9.6.2.

A screen cap in Eagle board designer and the Manufacturing view:

ds_test
ds_test1111×518 28.8 KB

In theory, this all seems fine, but I’ve never used it in practice. It feels like a solution in search of a problem to me, as I’ve never had trouble soldering headers in place. :person_shrugging:

Has anyone here had any issues (other than a curmudgeonly obsession with aligned drill holes) using the Eagle footprints provided by Electrosmith? Just curious as I’m about to send some designs for fabrication.

Cheers in advance!

2

I’ve wondered the same thing, in a similar curmudgeonly way, I think, but never had any issues. In my experience, it hasn’t helped us much with soldering headers as I might like.

Since the header pins are nice and thick, I don’t like to bend them, so sometimes holding the 20 pin headers vertical and getting one quality solder joint at the same time seems mildly acrobatic, but that’s probably just me.

1 Like
3

Yep, I can understand that. But I’ve just stacked the headers on a breadboard for as far back as I can remember. It also acts as a heat sink. I suppose it’s just a personal preference thing, though. I’d rather slice my own bread, for example. :bread: :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like