The Molex Ditto connector is something I’ve been looking for for awhile. On 3574, we aim for modularity, which meanslots of wire-to-wire connections. Like a lot of teams, this meant dupont connectors, those black slabs with either male or female crimp pins.
About 3 years ago we had a relatively complex shooter that involved ~10 signal/low current power wires, and I ended up trying the micro-fit line, however they’re a bit janky to crimp.
This year, we ended up using the ditto connectors to hookup encoders, and they worked fabulously. They’ll work with the dupont crimpers on the middle setting, though don’t quite fit all the way through, making it slightly harder to get the wire lined up.
They’re genderless, but polarized meaning you’ll only need 1 type of housing and 1 type of crimp connector. With 2 locking tabs these stay put, even if one might get pressed due to positioning. The contacts mate in such a way as to provide even more security. Each contact is a little hump, and when connected, the humps rest a little offset so that it pulls the connectors closer.
We finished off connections with 3:1 thermal glue infused heat shrink, and have had 0 issues with the reliability of those connections.
I agree with others that this sounds good, but some more info would be appreciated. Maybe some pictures of your installation, or where you got the pins, housings and crimper; and how much it might have cost.
Those do look like the model line OP mentioned. I’ve got access to Delphi weatherpak and metripack connections, but they tend to be overkill and bulky. No need for the intrusion protection on an FRC robot. I’m glad OP called the dupont connectors out by name, I had a hard time finding them specifically without that name, and ended up ordering pins and housings on a hunch.
These looks amazing! Too bad the crimper is so expensive. I’m ordering a few of the crimps and housings to see if I can do it with basic manual hobby crimpers.
EDIT: These are way cheaper than I expected! 1072 will have to try these out for sure!
DOUBLEEDIT: I just realized that these are of limited utility because the RoboRIO uses 0.1" pitch male headers. I’ll still pick some up for myself, but for FRC purposes I might as well just run a long wire to the roboRIO (this is what 115 usually did).
I really like the idea of these - like miniature Anderson battery connectors. However, when considering using them on the robot they always seem like a solution in search of a problem. For PWM and encoders, we try to run a single cable from end to end, whether COTS or handmade to reduce the number of possible loose connections. For CAN, using these connectors would mean making pigtails for the RIO, PDP, and PCM, or leaving them off of some of the motor controller wires ends, neither of which is a really good solution.
One of the big reasons I’m a fan of these is they are crimpable with the cheap dupont crimpers. The trick is to insert the crimp until the wings protecting the locking lance are flush with the crimp face. It won’t go all the way through but the crimp tabs do align properly.
It’s possible the friction lock variants which are 2.5mm pitch (as opposed to 3.0mm pitch for the locking tab version). The friction lock variants do seem to have positive locking as well. Though the value of the connectors is more wire-to-wire than wire-to-board.
Any clue if they have a PCB mount version? I haven’t been able to find one.
I really like the idea of these - like miniature Anderson battery connectors. However, when considering using them on the robot they always seem like a solution in search of a problem. For PWM and encoders, we try to run a single cable from end to end, whether COTS or handmade to reduce the number of possible loose connections. For CAN, using these connectors would mean making pigtails for the RIO, PDP, and PCM, or leaving them off of some of the motor controller wires ends, neither of which is a really good solution.
We tend to design or robot with at least 1 modular component, that can be removed quickly and worked on separately. This year it was the shooter. Wiring wise we have all the connections, power, can, encoders located in one spot for easy removal and re-assembly. In practice we’ve found it’s a bit of a toss up as to what’s worse, loose connection or not plugging into the right port. These all but eliminate loose connections as a problem.
In six years, we’ve only had one student who could crimp as well as he could label, and he couldn’t get the wires to all come out the same length, resulting in stressed wire. These difficulties have made our trials with “one spot” disconnects less reliable (and much harder to trouble shoot) than direct lines. Mileage varies.
We bought one package of adhesive shrink tubing a few years ago. Have you ever had to remove it? What we had was worse to clean up than three year old no-name electrical tape.
One downside (unless I’m reading the datasheet wrong, which is always possible) is the number of insertions is rather low (25), whereas powerpoles get 1,500 - 10,000 depending on whether you get tin or silver contacts.