U360 - 10 pin Wiring Harness - Question.

[Scottk]

Hi all,

I have a couple existing U360 10 pin Wiring Harnesses, but I do not like the thinness of the cables.
I would rather wire up my own, using thicker cable.

Does anyone know what the heck that 10 pin black connector is called?

[NickG]

It's a 2x5 0.1" pitch connector
The thickness supplied by Ultimarc is just fine (electrically) for  the short runs most people will use in their control panels. In fact the cable size is about as large as you can fit into a 0.1" pin connector.

You can remove the existing cables using a razor balade to lift the plastic and get your own 0.1" crimp pins, then you have to purchase your own 0.1" crimper if you do not yet own one.  Not sure if you can even fit larger cable into those...  Alternatively, you may be able to utilize push- down- type connectors for ribbon cable.  This is the method I have chosen.  My U360's 10-pin connectors are connected toribbon cable 'push-downs" and my buttons are run to ribbon cable via euro-style  terminal strips which i have purchased from Radioshack.  I am running them all to the same 50 pin cable which is connected to my computer's USB, and to my Dreamcast's inputs via CN50's.

If you are still having problems with wire size I think you may be delighted in using a wire ferrulle kit.  this increases the reliability of your wiring connections screw terminals and push down terminals
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.. wish I had one…

[Scottk]

Hi NickG,

Wow, this was the answer I was hoping to get!   Thank you so much!!!


BTW, yeah, I am moving towards thicker cable, not because of connection/distance problems, but more
because of problems on my end...
Specifically, when I try to crimp on the "slide on" connectors to the really thin cable, a lot of times,
I end up breaking the wire at the crimp point.

I know this is more or less my issue, and I am sure there are better techniques to make it work, but oh well...
Besides, I think the thicker cable looks better.

[NickG]

edit... hey I seemed to have edited after you answered but I added some more infoe to previous post ^^  that's about all i know about this sort of problem- Good Luck. 

[Havok]

You could just try folding the wire to make it thicker at the crimp point.

[Ginsu Victim]

You could just try folding the wire to make it thicker at the crimp point.

That's what I do, though I run the wires from the U360 into a 12-Position European-Style Terminal Strip.

[Scottk]

You could just try folding the wire to make it thicker at the crimp point.

At one point, I tried this too, but it seemed like when I "folded" the wire, a lot of times I ended up breaking the strands of wire at the fold point, even when I was really trying to be "delicate" during the folding.

My current idea that I have is to make a small connector that has the 2x5 .1 pitch on one side, and a larger pitch'ed 2x5 connector on the other side.
It would look something like those SCSI connectors that convert from a small connection to a larger cable assembly.
I just need to figure out what parts I would need to do something like this.

(I am a software guy, not a hardware guy, so this is something new for me)

Yes, this is probably overkill for something so trivial, but hey, its kind of interesting for me to do, so what the heck!

[Ginsu Victim]

Hmm, the fold and twist never gave me a problem.

[NickG]

My current idea that I have is to make a small connector that has the 2x5 .1 pitch on one side, and a larger pitch'ed 2x5 connector on the other side.
It would look something like those SCSI connectors that convert from a small connection to a larger cable assembly.
I just need to figure out what parts I would need to do something like this.

Perhaps You could use a DB9 header.  I thought about using them originally, but in the end I only salvaged the 10-pin headers from them.  It's funny that you mention the SCSI; I am using an SCSI CN50 ribbon cable connector in my control box now for my U360's and everything else.  I split the cable and routed half of it to my buttons and a USB hub, and then 10-wires over to each U360  I did it this way so I may connect my U360s to my controller hacks or to the USB on my PC, without digging around in the box to switch the wires around.