Down and dirty way to use a SMD PIC with a DIP programmer?

[RossWaddell]

I wired up the 3M clip this afternoon and I successfully programmed a SOIC-8 12F683 chip. Huzzah! The only problem I encountered is the spring on the clip is strong enough to deform the chip's pins, so it won't sit flush on the PCB unless I straighten them out. Has anyone else seen this? Should I just work the clip over and over to reduce the spring tension, or is it just a question of holding the chip just right when closing the clip?

I marked pin1 with a white dot:

[Darrel Taylor]

Never had that problem with my clip.

But looking at the pictures ... yours seems to have one more loop in the spring. 7 vs. 6.
hard to tell though.

Maybe you could cut some off the spring.

[RossWaddell]

I just realized I'm using the wrong orientation of pins on the clip if I want to do ICSP. Perhaps after I switch them the pressure won't be so bad.

[RossWaddell]

I re-wired the clip this morning (flipping the orientation of pin1) and it works! It's a bit tricky seating the SMD properly to make contact but it doesn't bend the pins (because they sit over top of the clip's metal pins).