Ok, so the JeeNode v4 kit is fine, judging from how many people have ordered them and built them. Cool, that was the whole point – a small Arduino-compatible kit with RF on board that’s easy to build and use.

As was to be expected, I ran out of IC sockets the other day. So I ordered new ones. Except, I picked a different supplier (DigiKey i.s.o. Farnell), because I thought it would simplify my life to obtain everything from as few sources as possible. Silly me…

Here’s what I got, 500 times:

Guess where it doesn’t fit?

The bent pins won’t fit through the JeeNode v4 PCB, where I used smaller holes to simplify soldering. Grrr…

There’s a solution, but it requires a bit of extra work. Take a set of flat beak pliers and flatten the pins, sort of:

Now it will fit, with a bit of juggling, while being careful not to bend any pins:

Problem solved. But I’ve learned another lesson: when things work, don’t change … A N Y T H I N G !

FWIW, I only found out about this problem after a handful of JeeNode kits had been sent out with these bent-pin IC sockets. I immediately ordered more suitable ones, which arrived the next day, and switched over to resolve the problem.

(Luckily, these IC sockets fit just fine on the Ether Card, so all it not lost…)