Crimper and pins?

[Slippyblade]

Question for you folks that roll your own harnesses.

I've been looking and not finding the info I need here.  I've been using a lot of .1" pin headers lately.  Love em.  But I've been using scavanged wires to make connections.  I'm running out of salvage to scavenge from and will need to start making my own wires.  What is the proper name for those types of connectors?  I'm assuming that it is possible to make those connections on your own, but without knowing the proper name of the pins or the crimper, I'm WILL end up ordering the wrong tool and that's a pointless mistake that costs money.

So, what are they called?  Anybody wanna toss a link at me?

[BadMouth]

You're looking for a D-Sub crimper

Paul Olson did a decent how to video here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,110181.msg1167355.html#msg1167355

I still only crimp my own when they're being inserted into some type of connector housing.
Otherwise it's just easier to buy a bunch of jumper wires from pololu, cut them in half, then splice my wire to them.
It doesn't look too bad if you have proper sized heat shrink tubing and the crimp is much better than I can usually acheive.

https://www.pololu.com/category/71/wires-with-pre-crimped-terminals
They also sell "premium" jumper wires that have the square black housing on the ends.

[dkersten]

They are commonly called DuPont connectors.  The pins are a pain in the butt even with a good crimper. 

D-sub refers to the end of a VGA or Serial cable, not the kind that uses the .1" pins. 

[Token]

To add a bit more...

These are headers and header connectors. See here.

But they are commonly called DuPont connectors (even though DuPont doesn't make them).

The tool you use to crimp them is usually called a D-Sub crimper, because it crimps D-Subminiature connectors and header connectors. People complain about the price of these, but you can get a cheap ones for less than ten bucks.

[Howard_Casto]

What's the application?  Are we talking Arduino or a similar avr or are we talking arcade controls or a hybrid of both?

The reason I ask is because those jumper wires (that's what they are called) for an avr are so cheap you can't make them as cheaply.  Go in ebay and you can usually get 10 or 20 sets of 5 pin jumper wires for well under 5 bucks. 

[BadMouth]

I have a cheap $10 crimper.  Could just be me, but only half of my crimps turn out right.
The parts on the connector just don't bend inward the way they are supposed to unless I tweak them with needle nose pliers first.

I noticed the $35 crimper sold by Pololu has curved areas in the die that look like they would guide the bendy parts correctly.
Pretty sure my $10 crimper just has a flat wedge shape there.

[Slippyblade]

What's the application?  Are we talking Arduino or a similar avr or are we talking arcade controls or a hybrid of both?

The answer is 'Yes'.  I'm playing around a lot with Arduino, AVRs, and custom harness for arcade controls.  Like I said, I've been scavenging and splicing from other stuff for a while now but am looking into doing my own.  It's a lot like how I started on this board.  Originally I was doing the same thing with QD connectors.  Once I got a decent crimper and learned how to do it, the look and quality improved.  I'm hoping the same thing happens with the .1" stuff. 

I use a lot of these as well, cutting and splicing into longer wires.

[PL1]

I have a cheap $10 crimper.  Could just be me, but only half of my crimps turn out right.
The parts on the connector just don't bend inward the way they are supposed to unless I tweak them with needle nose pliers first.

I noticed the $35 crimper sold by Pololu has curved areas in the die that look like they would guide the bendy parts correctly.
Pretty sure my $10 crimper just has a flat wedge shape there.

The curved areas do make a big difference.   



The main thing to consider is that the tool needs to work with the pin/socket being crimped.

Check out pimfg.com for ratchet crimp tools/dies.

http://www.pimfg.com/ is a great source for affordable ratcheting crimpers.

The jaws on page 74 of the catalog PDF work with the HT-336 frame or the Harbor Freight crimpers that RandyT linked above.

The Harbor Freight crimpers are slightly lower quality than the HT-336 -- check the HF crimpers before you buy them to ensure they are working properly. (The first pair I checked weren't functioning/adjusted properly.)

These P/Ns are the ones I ended up getting.
HF Ratcheting Crimp Pliers for QDs
HT-336-FM Crimp Tool Frame (for D-subs)
HT-236-2C4-DIE (236 dies work in the 336 frame, check out the "data sheet" tab for detailed view)
HT-236-2U-DIE
HT-225D Crimp tool (for D-subs)

The HT-225D looks like an excellent choice.

Don't have any un-crimped .1" sockets, but just tried re-crimping a pre-fab .1" socket/wire like this from Paradise and it appears to be a great fit.   




Scott

[Howard_Casto]

What's the application?  Are we talking Arduino or a similar avr or are we talking arcade controls or a hybrid of both?

The answer is 'Yes'.  I'm playing around a lot with Arduino, AVRs, and custom harness for arcade controls.  Like I said, I've been scavenging and splicing from other stuff for a while now but am looking into doing my own.  It's a lot like how I started on this board.  Originally I was doing the same thing with QD connectors.  Once I got a decent crimper and learned how to do it, the look and quality improved.  I'm hoping the same thing happens with the .1" stuff. 

I use a lot of these as well, cutting and splicing into longer wires.

Well I bought a pack of 20, 5 pin for 5 dollars off ebay last year.  They were two feet long so all I really had to do was cut the end off and add arcade style connectors on the other end.  So yeah what I was getting at was the jumper wires are so cheap I would just buy those and modify the other end to suit your needs... you can get them extra long if you look hard enough.