pins, cables

You can get loose connectors of many types from Digikey, Mouser and other electronic suppliers - and even Radio Shack should have a limited selection. The same sources will also have a wide selection of bulk cable.

Some connector families are available with insertable contacts, intended to be crimped on the cable, then inserted into the connector body. I use these contacts to make single contact test leads.

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Peter Bennett, VE7CEI  
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--- In the US, pins and sockets are generally described as having mating diameters equivalent to AWG sizes. That is pins (male contacts) and sockets (female contacts) of like gauges will mate properly.

Pins and sockets are available loose from any of the major connector manufacturers and can be had as crimp-type or solder-type.

Crimp types are much more convenient to use and, with the proper choice of contact and crimp tool, can produce connections superior to those available using solder.

Another advantage to using crimp contacts is that after the contacts have been crimped onto the wires, they're just poked into the right locations in the connector inserts, eliminating the need to solder at the connector.

Single wires can easily be prepared for probing a connector by crimping on the proper sex contact on one end, and then terminating the other end with whatever you need: banana plug, alligator clip, mini-hook, etc.

It's a good idea to use a little shrink tubing over the crimped area of the contact in order to give the wire a little strain relief.

I suggest you go to Digi-Key's site, find loose pins and crimp tools from various manufacturers and then go to their sites for a more detailed view of what's out there. (What's out there is HUGE!)

You're in for a surprise when you find what good crimp tools cost!

-- JF

But unless things have changed in recent years, most connectors are available in a form that can be soldered to. Certainly any "DB" type connectors.

Or just buy a cable, cut off the other and, and use the wires to "break out" the connections.

Michael

Is it basically cheaper to walk in to a Radio Shack and buy a few components of various types or to order from certain online suppliers?

One problem I have with a wide selection is that I'm not really knowledgeable about what all the choices mean that I have to select from, even if I feel in my gut that there must be something wrong with the choices at Radio Shack.

Thanks very much for this remark. It is very helpful to learn the term, "insertable contacts", and to now be able to search for it online. And also that they exist.

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

Thanks for this synopsis.

OK. Do you know any online illustrations of this technique?

Makes sense.

Thanks, I took a look. It will take some getting used to.

Radio Shack sells a crimping tool for about $39. Will it do the job?

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

For single pins, breadboarding, test point jumpers and similar, I'd recommend getting a bag of individual crimp connectors (Molex

16-02-0102 (tin) or 16-02-0103 (gold)), a couple of spools of 22 AWG stranded wire, a couple of colors of shrink tubing (1/16" should work), and the $10 crimp tool HT-202A (at Jameco and many others).

Spend an afternoon making up some sets in a standard size, 6", 12",

18" or whatever. Note that the 16-02-0102 connectors are for 0.025-square posts and not particularly good for mating to the smaller DB pins (though they will sort of work if you don't jiggle them). For normal sized DB pins, try AMP part 1-66504-0.

The crimp tool is adequate but nothing to brag about. A notch up the ladder is an Eclipse 300-054 frame and 300-086 die, available as a set from

You can buy similar jumpers already made from Sparkfun

For "regular" 0.1" center rectangular connectors, nothing beats ribbon cable and IDC connectors. To mate to a breadboard (where you'll want to span a separator) use IDC DIP connectors (Mouser carries them).

For 0.1" single-inline connectors, start with the Molex kit KK-100.

For smaller pitches in pairs and single row, as well as latching connectors and metric-sized pins, look in the vicinity of the catalog pages for the 0.1" families.

[snip...snip...]

My bad ... This is NOT on an Eclipse frame. It's from their Solar series, frame # 300-087.

Prices will almost certainly be cheaper at the on-line suppliers, but they will often have minimum order policies, and you also have to pay shipping.

If you only want two DE-9 connectors, Radio Shack is probably cheaper, but if your total order might be $50, the on-line suppliers will be cheaper.

Beware that crimp tools for these contacts can be quite specialized - at work, we've got a cupboard full of various crimp tools for all the different connectors that we use. If you do use insertable-contact connectors, don't forget to get a contact removal tool!

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI  
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca  
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
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Officially, you need the right crimp tool for the specific contact you are using - however, depending on the contact, and the assembler's skill, you can often "make do" with the wrong tool, and/or solder.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI  
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca  
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Since crimp tools are fairly expensive, and often unique to each contact style, I'd suggest that for most home/hobby applications, you should use solderable connectors, unless you expect to make a large number of cables using the same connector family.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI  
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca  
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

I make do with needlenose pliers and a bit of frustration. It works fine, although it's slow. If I were putting more than a few contacts on at a time I'd start thinking of getting an actual tool --- but of course each type of connector needs a different crimp tool, and at $200 a pop, that adds up fast. :)

--
   Wim Lewis , Seattle, WA, USA. PGP keyID 27F772C1

Thanks for this advice. I do have a soldering iron.

In your other message, you indicated that, unofficially, one can sometimes use the wrong crimping tool. As an experiment, I'll see what I can accomplish with pliers.

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

Coincidentally, this evening I found a discarded computer and extracted its motherboard, plug in cards, power supply and drives, as well as a ribbon cable, leaving the case behind. I haven't had a chance to look it over. I don't know whether this will provide me with suitable smaller components, assuming I don't find the motherboard, plug in cards and plugs on the back of the computer useful. The power supply can be used to power some projects on a solderless breadboard.

Thanks for these and other suggestions, as well as the correction in your other posting. One of the things I think I need to do is to develop hands on familiarity with the pins and connectors I have actually found in the discarded PC, since I am free to disassemble as far as I like. Then I'll become more literate in dealing with the online suppliers. Of course, I could also acquire this literacy by buying a lot of stuff, but I can't afford to learn that way. I can also examine pins and connectors on the PC I'm actually planning to connect to the synthesizer keyboard, but such examination needs to be much less intrusive.

Since pins, as they occur in nature, probably don't come marked with explicit sizes, maybe one thing I need is a way to measure their dimensions.

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

--
Google "Vernier caliper"

Even a so-so crimper will likely perform far better than pliers. The $10 tool I mentioned earlier won't replace a $250 connector-specific tool and die set but you'll be a lot happier with the results as compared to needle-nose pliers. If you use it, be prepared to move up or down a station from the stamped AWG range depending on the actual dimensions of the connector you're crimping.

Some info at (yes, the original link is named pdf-squared ;-)

It specifically applies to solderless terminals (ring, spade, ...) but the general discussion is good.

Thanks, I just downloaded it. It looks pretty good!

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.