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Author Topic: Wire connector tutorial - which is the right crimp terminal?  (Read 7523 times)

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Offline zackTopic starter

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I'm so confused!  Which of these would be the crimp terminal as mentioned in the wire tutorial? http://www.societyofrobots.com/electronics_wire_connector.shtml

http://www.allelectronics.com//index.php?page=category&id=196&p=1&template=

Offline Webbot

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Re: Wire connector tutorial - which is the right crimp terminal?
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2008, 07:59:07 PM »
Just so you know you aren't alone. I've found this to be 'the weakest link' in the whole thing.

Of course you could spend $150 on a crimper but if it doesn't match the hoods, pins, wire that you are using then its money down the drain - and if you change systems then you may need another $150 tool.

So I just use a pair of 'long nose' pliers to do the crimping - but when I compare this against bought in 'crimps' on other components then it doesn't pass the same 'tug as hard as you can to break it' test. I've tried my 'basic' wire cutter which has 'a crimping facility' - but it tends to just cut the terminals in half.

From the $50 tutorial - admin quotes the exact Molex terminals to use from Digikey. But I haven't found these elsewhere in the UK so have had to import them at vast expense (Digikey only waives p&p if we,in the UK, spend more than £200!). And cant afford the extra mega $$ for the crimper.

But stand back.

Why do we use crimped terminals - to plug and play - right?

So if you know what you want to connect to what (ie you ain't breadboarding any more) then those big ugly black crimp terminals take up a load of 3D space and, unless you've bought the mega $$ crimper, they don't make very good connections either!!!

So just solder the sensor wires to the board !!! 

You can always put chocolate block terminals midway on the wires - or some other kind'a inline connector to allow you to swap things in and out without resoldering. ie make the connector plug'n'play on the wire itself - rather than on the pcb header.

Not saying you should/shouldn't do this - it's just a view

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Offline Webbot

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Re: Wire connector tutorial - which is the right crimp terminal?
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2008, 10:15:20 PM »
Ok - am just waiting for you purists to beat me up for that..... ::)
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