Making cables

You might consider buying assembled ribbon cables, from Digikey or some such.

John

I really need to learn to make my own custom cables because I have a variety of projects that will require different kinds of connections.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Wide parallel busses between boxes may be less than optimal, particularly if the run is more than a couple of feet. There are reasons why IDE cables are only seen inside boxes while external cables are typically some flavor of serial connection.

That out of the way, something like this

would do for the wire side. A mating pin header could be

Ribbon cable insulation displacement connections (IDC) can be made by squeezing the shell together with a shop vice. Pin headers are (as above) typically PCB-mounted, although there are instances where IDC panel-mounts could be used.

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA

I second the advise to use a shop vice. I've used it for years; used with care, and an understanding of how the IDC process works, they make very reliable connections.

The biggest advise that I can add to that is to buy good parts and cable (3M and AMP are both good brands), and use all the strain-relief gew-gaws that come with your chosen connector. For external connections, consider using DB-25 or DB-37 connectors. You can get them with IDC terminations, and they're made for external use.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

s m

Ok, the two links that Rich posted do not work, but I decided to go with DB-37.

I'm thinking male/male cables with female housings on the project boxes.

I just need to find out if there are special tools I'll need when I get the complete cables and the housings. I'll have to cut a slot in the plastic sides of the project boxes and secure the housings there.

Lastly, since the male/male cables will be used between the female housings, I need to find out the size of the leads I can use on the opposite side of those housings and how to connect to them.

Thanks.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Actually. you got back to my last pm at KLOV. I sent three or four questions and you responded, "I can't honestly remember if we resolved this...". And that was all. So I assumed that you didn't want to be bothered.

Nevertheless, a couple of those question I had concerned the LED joystick and RGB LEDs, but I've now decided that lit joyticks and buttons are too complicated for what I need.

Starburst, which Marsupial recommended, had no reference to pink buttons on their site.

As for Ponyboy, I couldn't find a web site for him. I sent him a question via pm here about the Rollie switches a week ago, but I didn't received a reply. So I'm still looking for pink butttons.

I did finally get a couple of 4" long pink joysticks from an eBay seller and will have to get around to machining them down on my lathe so that they would fit the original Ms. Pac-man joystick assemblies I have.

But for my other project cabinet, even though the JAMMAboards.com joysticks weren't leaf switch joysticks they had the needed small "below control panel" profile, so I picked up a couple. Unfortunately, they didn't work because the sticks are too short:

As for your pink joystick:

Since it has the longest stick of your 4-ways I asked you what the profile(thickness) was of the assembly that goes below the control panel, and I also asked about the hole spacing for the bolts.

(And even though you are still out of stock, it would also be interesting to know if your Rollie switches have gold plated contacts).

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

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Basically, you have two choices: crimp pins and/or solder cup
connectors.

In the crimp pin style you have an empty connector shell into which
you insert female pins after you've crimped wires into them, and in
the solder cup style you have a shell fully populated with female
solder cup contacts into which you must solder the wires.

For convenience, as well as for the difficulty of doing a good job
with the solder cup contacts - if you're not you're not good to expert
with a soldering iron - I'd suggest the crimp pins.  

The downside is that you'll have to buy a crimp tool you may only use
once, but then, one can't have too many tools. ;)

As for the wire, most pins will accept from 24 to 20 AWG, and I think
most crimpers want to squish stranded wire, so just to make sure of
getting a good crimp, I'd use #22.

Here's a link to the shells:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=A1037-ND

the contacts:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=7-66504-0-ND

and the crimp tool:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=A31205-ND

$603.45 is probably a little higher than you want to pay for a
crimping tool, so you may want to look at other connector
manufacturers who supply their own shells, contacts, and tools for far
less.

Digi-Key and Mouser should be able to supply you with what you need.

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Ok, I decided to take Tim's advice and go with DB-37.

I picked up male/male cables and will put female (Solder cup) housings on the project boxes. (I'll have to cut a slot in the plastic sides of the project boxes).

Thanks.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.