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I have been worrying about my crimping ability on the stepper motor connectors, and I noticed that ebay has a number of jumper cables, 4p to 4p female 2.54 Dupont connectors. It would look to me that these would be ideal for extending the stepper motor wiring to already done connectors. These only run around $5.00 for a bunch of them with free shipping. Has anybody tried this?

if it fits, use it.

Crimping isn't difficult, just make sure you have the right tool.

Darth wrote:I have been worrying about my crimping ability on the stepper motor connectors, and I noticed that ebay has a number of jumper cables, 4p to 4p female 2.54 Dupont connectors. It would look to me that these would be ideal for extending the stepper motor wiring to already done connectors. These only run around $5.00 for a bunch of them with free shipping. Has anybody tried this?

Could you give us the link so that we can take a look at those connectors?
Carl

Eaglezsoar wrote:

Darth wrote:I have been worrying about my crimping ability on the stepper motor connectors, and I noticed that ebay has a number of jumper cables, 4p to 4p female 2.54 Dupont connectors. It would look to me that these would be ideal for extending the stepper motor wiring to already done connectors. These only run around $5.00 for a bunch of them with free shipping. Has anybody tried this?

Could you give us the link so that we can take a look at those connectors?
Carl

This is just one that I am considering, it would have a connector on each end, but I am not sure of the locking ability.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-40PCS-Dupon ... 43b2bf7d2e

They're female to female, how were you proposing connecting to them?

they wont lock because they have no locking mechanism.

this is the part number you need for the connector 50-57-9404 http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch ... le&cur=USD or here http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mol ... Dr7T8xxg==

but unfortunately search didn't come up with anything that had precrimped wires.

Polygonhell wrote:They're female to female, how were you proposing connecting to them?

Our connectors are female, I was just going to replace them.

cambo3d wrote:they wont lock because they have no locking mechanism.

this is the part number you need for the connector 50-57-9404 http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch ... le&cur=USD or here http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mol ... Dr7T8xxg==

but unfortunately search didn't come up with anything that had precrimped wires.

I am not sure that a locking mechanism is absolutely necessary???? Not the best of solutions, but.

Darth wrote:

cambo3d wrote:they wont lock because they have no locking mechanism.

this is the part number you need for the connector 50-57-9404 http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch ... le&cur=USD or here http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mol ... Dr7T8xxg==

but unfortunately search didn't come up with anything that had precrimped wires.

I am not sure that a locking mechanism is absolutely necessary???? Not the best of solutions, but.

you could always put some hot glue, to hold it in place if need be, and it comes off easily

I just came across a better solution. These are pre-crimped wires on female pins with 25mm of wire. I am checking to make sure of the pin size. This way I would be able to keep the locking connector, and get an extension wire.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0826251879

try it out, let us know if it works.

I never liked molex connectors. To each their own, though. I've been searching for good connectors, I just ordered these:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/160995537007?ssP ... 2203wt_986

I love LEMO connectors, and these seem like a poor man's LEMO ($40 a connector, yeah right!). Anyway, despite the language of the listing, the seller assures me it is 5 PAIRS of connectors, so still more than molex, but hopefully nice connectors which are easy to engage and disengage (and lock).

cambo3d wrote:try it out, let us know if it works.

The seller assured me they would work, and after all, only $3.50 (including shipping) for 20 of them wasn't much of a gamble, so I ordered them. Will report when I get them. I already crimped the stock ones, but if these work, I am going to replace them.

theverant wrote:I never liked molex connectors. To each their own, though. I've been searching for good connectors, I just ordered these:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/160995537007?ssP ... 2203wt_986

I love LEMO connectors, and these seem like a poor man's LEMO ($40 a connector, yeah right!). Anyway, despite the language of the listing, the seller assures me it is 5 PAIRS of connectors, so still more than molex, but hopefully nice connectors which are easy to engage and disengage (and lock).

I have some of those lying around from a previous project the two issues are they are a bit on the bulky side for a reprap and the sockets are designed for panel mounting not inline use, depends a bit on how you envisage using them.

theverant wrote:I never liked molex connectors. To each their own, though. I've been searching for good connectors, I just ordered these:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/160995537007?ssP ... 2203wt_986

I love LEMO connectors, and these seem like a poor man's LEMO ($40 a connector, yeah right!). Anyway, despite the language of the listing, the seller assures me it is 5 PAIRS of connectors, so still more than molex, but hopefully nice connectors which are easy to engage and disengage (and lock).

How the heck do you plan to wire those into the Rambo????????????????????

Polygonhell wrote:I have some of those lying around from a previous project the two issues are they are a bit on the bulky side for a reprap and the sockets are designed for panel mounting not inline use, depends a bit on how you envisage using them.

I was planning on having them panel mounted to the Max's chassis. That way there will be a patch bay for the outer 'patchables'. I figured it would make for fairly quick disconnects/swaps. Maybe it won't work very well, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Darth, I plan to wire the panel mount side to the RAMBO and have them facing out from the chassis. Think like how a A/V patch bay might work. The leads from the fans, etc, will all feed back to this patch bay. Everything will be labelled so I don't accidentally plug the extruder motor into the fan socket. Which is exactly the type of thing I would do.

I totally understand your concern about crimping! On my previous Prusa mendel printer, I didn't have the proper molex crimp tool, so I listened to others on the forum (another forum) and tried to 'crimp' the pins myself using pliers and other crimping tools.

Boy was that a mistake - long story short, Somehow I think I shorted at least 1 molex plug (pins were too wide with the crimps - had to force them into the plug), and fried 2 control boards (didn't "fry" them entirely, just the USB portion wouldn't work meaning I couldn't connect to my computer!).

This time I said no excuses and manned up to buy a molex crimpper (this one specifically: http://www.amazon.com/HT-225D-Cycle-Rat ... B007JLN93S) because it was an amazon prime item, I got it in 2 days, woot woot!

Anyway, after doing 1 crimp test, I was sold! Having the right crimper tool makes ALL the difference. And since this one is a ratcheting crimper, I click twice to hold the molex pin in the crimper, then slide in my wire, align it, then crimp all the way. Worked every time, didn't have 1 failed crimp on the whole printer!

Do yourself a favor (since I guarantee you'll be building another 3D printer within a year ha ha), buy the molex crimper!

Darth wrote:

cambo3d wrote:try it out, let us know if it works.

The seller assured me they would work, and after all, only $3.50 (including shipping) for 20 of them wasn't much of a gamble, so I ordered them. Will report when I get them. I already crimped the stock ones, but if these work, I am going to replace them.

I got them and they do not have the little locking ear that holds them into the connector, but I found the exact replacement for the wire and locking connector:
http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Compatibl ... ql_qh_dp_t

They are only 8inches long and have a connector on both ends. Probably too short to replace the other wire extensions unless you cut off the other connector close to the end, but you only need 4. I just ordered mine.

Interesting, this company, osepp, make a lot of Arduino compatible parts and there available at places like Frys, Circuit City, etc.

seemecnc was planning on getting precrimped stepper motors.

so wont it be an issue so much for some people, but i haven't heard of anyone having a kit with the precrimped connectors on them yet.

I would just add that the connector type used is the same as the old audio connector that used to be used in CD-ROM drives for the internal audio connection. If you have some older computers laying around or access to a school or work computer burial ground, then you might be able to find some of these rather inexpensively.

Darth wrote:

Darth wrote:

cambo3d wrote:try it out, let us know if it works.

The seller assured me they would work, and after all, only $3.50 (including shipping) for 20 of them wasn't much of a gamble, so I ordered them. Will report when I get them. I already crimped the stock ones, but if these work, I am going to replace them.

I got them and they do not have the little locking ear that holds them into the connector, but I found the exact replacement for the wire and locking connector:
http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Compatibl ... ql_qh_dp_t

They are only 8inches long and have a connector on both ends. Probably too short to replace the other wire extensions unless you cut off the other connector close to the end, but you only need 4. I just ordered mine.

Interesting, this company, osepp, make a lot of Arduino compatible parts and there available at places like Frys, Circuit City, etc.

These worked perfectly, but watch the wiring color coding, the last two wires are a different color than original. You need to reverse your attachments to the original wires.