Our team needs connectors for the new season, and I havent been able to find a good placeto buy them. The best site I’ve found so far for the terminals is at RSR Electronics, but they dont seem to sell the male connectors we need. I also havent really heard of this seller before. I’ve found long lengths of cable at Servocity, but their pwm housings/pins are overpriced.
The general gist of the situation is that the big sellers rip you off, and I dont know of the quality/shipping times of the more obscure sites (plus no single site seems to have all the supplies I need).
Where do you guys buy your pwm wire/connectors from?
We’ve also used Hansen Hobbies for PWM supplies for our robots the last few years. No complaints (except that my students are about 10 times better at making PWM cables than me).
There are certainly other options available. Search your favorite electronics distributor (Allied, Newark, Digikey, Mouser, etc)for the following part numbers:
The sockets and pins are all crimp-style (although I prefer to use a little solder as well, to make sure it doesn’t come out), and fit into the housing. The above part numbers are for Molex brand parts, there may be knock-offs that are available cheaper. Remember that you need 3 sockets/pins per housing!
Those sites also often give you discounts for buying in larger quantities. I know my team typically uses 15-20 PWM cables per year - that’s at least 30 housings, 45 pins, and 45 sockets. Depending on discounts, I may purchase 100 housings, 300 pins and 300 sockets at a time, knowing that we’ll continue to use them for years to come, and knowing that they’re small and can be easily stored.
From what I’ve found, pricing can fluctuate wildly… you may find the housing available for $0.75 on one site, and 0.25 on another! And the pricing can change radically from one year to the next on different sites.
Oout of curiosity, do you know the difference between the 16-02-0102 and 16-02-0102-C, or the 16-02-0114 and 16-02-0115? It seems that our part lists are almost identical, I’m just wondering what difference we would see if we switched parts
Ahh, great to know, thanks! We keep a spreadsheet with part numbers (manufacturer and supplier) that we refer to for purchases, and everytime we do a new purchase I quickly scan all the suppliers on the list to make sure we have the best deal (it’s not hard to search 4-5 websites and record price on the spreadsheet). It’s amazing how that stuff changes from one year to the next!
The place I use a lot is http://www.findchips.com It’s free to use and it searches all the main electronic places.
I see a lot about the connectors, what about a source for cable?
Would going to a heavier guage help with prevent failure?
For those of us missing the extra-fine motor skills and eagle eyes required to put crimps on 26AWG stranded wire (or for teams with relatively inexperienced electrical students) Pololu (www.pololu.com) sells pre-crimped individual wires in 6 lengths, 2 gauges (22 & 26) and 10 different colors. They also sell crimp connector housings in a very wide variety of configurations, so you can custom build PWM, encoder, or any kind of signal or low power cable without making a single crimp! The pre-crimped connectors just snap into the housings (and are easily removable if you make a mistake or your requirements change). While the wire costs may be a little more than buying raw spools, you can’t beat the convenience and simplicity. And the connector housings are dirt cheap - just pennies apiece.
If you need to make custom length cables in a size other than what they sell (6 different lengths - from 3" up to 60"), it is very easy to splice and solder the cables in the middle rather than recrimping the ends.
(Disclaimer: I have no relationship to this site or this business, other than being a loyal and satisfied customer!)
FYI – for the futaba servo cables, to expose the male pin side you need to cut off the plastic cover on the end. just cut the plastic with wire cutter or similar ad remove it.
For cable, your choices are more limited. Many suppliers will sell you a 3 wire ribbon cable, but often only in colors other than the red/white/black we are accustomed to. For the ultra flex you need silicone insulation and the suppliers of that are limited as well. For decent PWM wire, Hansen Hobbies is hard to beat.
I’m not a fan of heavier conductors as this tends to make the connectors harder to put on properly.
We had a local VEX team that made custom cables and delivered them as part of their fund raising. Check in your area, there may be a team that wants to trade crimps for cash…
I don’t like custom-crimped PWM cables made by students/mentors. Too many have failed crimps and get pins stuck in speed controller inputs. If the amazon resources aren’t doing it for you, buy short pre-crimped ones, buy bulk servo wire like here , then cut the short cables and solder extensions (heat shrink everything) to any desired length.
