[jeffmorris]

I need quick disconnect cable connectors that don't require soldering. Any suggestions?

[lowpull]

Molex type connectors.

[Thazul]

I think radioshack has some Molex, here's where I got mine though:
https://www.alliedelec.com/images/pr...irtualcatalog/
Page 201 for the index of connectors, page 217-219 for Molex type.

-

Andy

[Gir]

Well unfortunately you'll always have to solder the wires onto your cable connector (hopefully that's not what you're trying to avoid :\ ). If you have any old computers laying around, scavenge some molex connectors from them. Most computers will have anywhere form 4-8 usually (maybe more). That's what I'm doing.

[lowpull]

Not so, I bought crimp on sockets and pins. no soldering

[jeffmorris]

I have computer cables with 9-pin "D" connectors but I may not have enough male and female connectors. I'm not sure if cables made by different companies have same color wires. I think that there's two kinds of molex connectors. The ones that connect to disk drives are usually large white connectors with 4 pins and the ones that connect to motherboards are smaller female connectors and I don't think that there's male connectors. The stepper motors require five wires to work. Two of the wires coming from the stepper motors are connected together before being connected to the driver boards made by Probotix.

[Riceburner98]

I use 5 pin Molex connectors, they look just like the hard drive connectors but have 1 more pin. They are crimp connectors, but I never trust a crimp and always solder them. I have 4 wire steppers, and use the 5th pin for the braided ground shield on the cable, it ties back to chassis ground in the control box. We have several sets of different high-precision linear stages here at work, one of them is about 3' x 3', and has rather large stepper motors on it. They are using standard 9-pin serial port type connectors, and this is probably a $10,000 linear stage with some pretty good size steppers. So apparently just about any connector will work. The cables *look* like standard serial cables as well, but I don't know if the wires are larger inside or not..

[Regnar]

Here are some plastic cannon plugs. Its the same thing the military uses on aircraft just plastic. I know they make water tight connections to but I didnt seem them. The pins and sockets can be solder or crimp. What is nice about these connections is that they can only go together one way and then they are threaded on, so pretty much accident proof.

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/634/1240.pdf

[jeffmorris]

I found out that tools for crimping wires to connectors are EXPENSIVE! WHY?

[lowpull]

I bought my crimp tool, its a gc/waldom HT-1921. It costs about 20 bucks. This is not the tool if you are doing thousands of crimps, But for handful of connectors its not bad.

[Gir]

Not so, I bought crimp on sockets and pins. no soldering

I left that out since pretty much anyone who goes out and buys crimpers usually already has a soldering iron.

I found out that tools for crimping wires to connectors are EXPENSIVE! WHY?

Yup! A lot of them have a good bit going on mechanically and need to have adjustments built in for calibration and such. Especially the cannon connectors. Those crimpers are crazy expensive (for anything decent), but are very, very good. NASA uses a lot of the cannon connectors - they're very good, but their higher end stuff is definitely overkill for our application.

[Regnar]

Gir is right the nasa stuff is way out of our league. A military/nasa cannon plug goes for around 200.00 and the tooling goes up from there. The ones I showed you are around 8 dollars for 1 whole connection. The only tools I used was a pair of needle nose pliers and a stir stick from McDonalds

[jeffmorris]

Does wire gauge matter? I found out that the cables that I bought from Probotix have 22-gauge wires and that keyboard/mouse extension cables have 28-gauge wire. I found a website where I entered the length of cable, voltage, and ampere to get voltage drop. 22-gauge wire have 0.5 volt drop for 10-foot cable and 28-gauge wire have 3.0 volt drop for 10-foot cable.

[Gir]

Does wire gauge matter? I found out that the cables that I bought from Probotix have 22-gauge wires and that keyboard/mouse extension cables have 28-gauge wire. I found a website where I entered the length of cable, voltage, and ampere to get voltage drop. 22-gauge wire have 0.5 volt drop for 10-foot cable and 28-gauge wire have 3.0 volt drop for 10-foot cable.

Yes. If we're talking about the wires for the motors, 28 gauge will absolutely not do. It will melt. 22 gauge is also pushing it. You shouldn't use anything higher than 18 gauge wire for any of your power transfer. What you can do is run two 22 gauge wires and parallel and that will give you roughly an 18 gauge equivalent.

If we're talking about the wires for the parallel port on your computer, 28 gauge is perfectly fine since there's no power transfer, just signal (current should be in the range of micro amps).

As far as gauge goes for the crimps, that matters as as well. If you're using connectors that aren't mean for high power transfer (which you probably are), then it'll probably only take 22, maybe 20 gauge wire. Regnar chose some nice connectors (I've thought about getting the same exact kind), however I'm weary about just using pliers to crimp the connectors. I've seen too many connectors fall apart because crimpers were not calibrated properly, much less using pliers. That's why I chose soldering molex connectors to mitigate the possible problem of a wire coming loose and shorting.

[jeffmorris]

Should I replace 22-gauge wire with 18-gauge wire for the motors? I think that it's possible to crimp and solder the wires to the connectors. Soldering the wires after they are crimped should be easier than trying to solder wires to connectors that can't be crimped.

[Gir]

Should I replace 22-gauge wire with 18-gauge wire for the motors? I think that it's possible to crimp and solder the wires to the connectors. Soldering the wires after they are crimped should be easier than trying to solder wires to connectors that can't be crimped.

Yes, if you can.

[LeeWay]

I have finally settled on trailer connectors.


They are nice and big and are meant to be plugged in and unplugged repeatedly. I have these on all three of my machines for the motor cables and they are working great. They come with wire already on them, so no crimping or soldering.
I had a need to run two machines on one control system for awhile and these worked great. Simply swapped motor plugs. I can get these locally around $3 a set.

Here is another type if you want to mount them to a panel.




These come in 4, 5, 6 and more pin config's.

Here is a good spot to see them online.

[Gir]

Excellent find, LeeWay. Those would work perfect for application. Too bad they don't have any 8 pin connectors, otherwise I would probably get those!

[loboy]

I use DIN connectors on my steppers. They come in a variety of pin configurations and it is simple to wire up cables with a variety of wire gauges. They do require soldering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_connector

I would both crimp and solder any connector, it just makes for a more reliable and rugged connector, especially if the connector is going to be moving around or is in a harsh environment.

Also, a cable that is highly flexible is advantageous for a motors attached to a traveling axis.

[solodex2151]

You may want to try 5 pin XLR connectors. 3 pin are common in the audio industry, but 5 pin isn't too have to come by. The look similar to the connectors on the bottom of LeeWay's post.