DNIN8K Assembly

Secure the board with a PC Board holder or other method.

The board has been placed in a PCB holder, set so that the holder won’t interfere with parts placement and soldering. The PCB holder isn’t necessary, but it sure is nice if you do a lot of assembly.

Before beginning assembly, take note of the polarity/orientation marks on the board:

Insert the CD4021BE IC into the holes where shown. Note the orientation of the Pin 1 mark on the case.

If you do not have a chip insertion tool, insert the pins on one side of the IC into the corresponding holes. Then, using your fingers to press on the case/pins on the opposite side, put just enough pressure on the IC to flex without damaging the inserted pins and insert the opposite row into their respective holes. Use cross lock tweezers to hold the chip tightly against the board.

Turn the board upside down and solder 16 pins.

Next, insert and solder the diode. The cathode of the diode is marked with a band, and should be oriented with the cathode mark on the board.

Now insert and solder the LED and the 2kΩ resistor. The long lead of an LED is the anode — insert it into the hole with anode mark shown below. The 2k resistor goes in “R1” adjacent to the LED. Bend the leads on the bottom of the board to hold the parts in place while soldering. Flush cut the excess leads after soldering.

Next, insert and solder the 8 pull-down resistors, bending the leads on the bottom of the board to hold them in place. Its easiest to do the rows separately.

The leads from the resistors have been bent to secure the resistors for soldering.

Solder the resistors, then flush cut the excess leads.

Now do the second row.

All components except terminal blocks have been installed.

The last parts to install are the terminal blocks. These are “rising cage” terminal blocks, providing superior wire hold across a range of wire gauges. Before installing the blocks, inspect them and use a screw driver to lower the cage (turning the screw to the left) and fully open the terminals. Note that the terminals may be shipped by the manufacturer in a “closed” state which looks “open” because the cage is at the top of its travel without any wire.

The 3 x 3 port, 3.5mm pitch terminal blocks are put together to create a 9 port terminal block, using the dovetail joints built into the blocks. Each block has a long dovetail pin on one side, and a dovetail slot on the other.

Insert a block dovetail pins into the corresponding slots on the next block.

Insert and solder the 9 port terminal block you’ve just assembled.

insert the 2.54mm pitch 3 port terminal blocks on the other end and solder in place. If you prefer, you can replace any 3 port terminal block with a pin header using the same pitch: 2.54mm/.1″.