sockets for pins and drill bits for pcbs

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Shawn McCombs

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Jun 4, 2012, 4:55:41 AM6/4/12
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Does anyone know how to find these on ebay?

http://www.adafruit.com/products/266


Also is there a good set of drill bits for pcb holes? I made my pcbs
with eagle and default settings so they are pretty small. I tried
measuring them and they are about 1mm so the bits would have to be
smaller. Any ideas?

Paul Kerchen

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Jun 4, 2012, 7:13:02 AM6/4/12
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Paul Kerchen

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Jun 4, 2012, 7:13:59 AM6/4/12
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Aaron Dubin

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Jun 4, 2012, 7:52:22 AM6/4/12
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solderless jumper female
use that search string and you should get what you're looking for i think.


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Andrew Meyer

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Jun 4, 2012, 8:08:44 AM6/4/12
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As for drill bits, the Electronics Goldmine has a pretty good
assortment for cheap.
--
Andrew G. Meyer
agm...@gmail.com
"Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist
invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute."--Gil Stern

Roger S

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Jun 4, 2012, 8:42:22 AM6/4/12
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We have a pretty good set of drills and mills for the PCB plotter.  I've got a list of what I've bought for it online if there's a specific hole size you want me to check on.

David Alvarez

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Jun 4, 2012, 8:45:25 AM6/4/12
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If you're perenially broke (like I am) Harbor Freight sells some tiny micr-drill bits, in a range of sizes from ~0.75mm--3mm.  I'll bring mine in when I come in, and leave them by the pcb cnc (i.e. with Jim).

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Nathaniel Bezanson

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Jun 4, 2012, 10:48:15 AM6/4/12
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On Jun 4, 4:55 am, Shawn McCombs <0theifda...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Does anyone know how to find these on ebay?
>
> http://www.adafruit.com/products/266

Or you could just build 'em yourself to whatever length you need:
http://www.i3detroit.com/unobtanium-obtained

-Nathaniel-

Alan Evans

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Jun 4, 2012, 1:16:38 PM6/4/12
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I wonder Nate, how does one crimp those? I've used a small (eyeglass)
flat screwdriver to do one or two. But if one were doing a bunch of
them that might not be ideal.

-Alan
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Andrew Meyer

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Jun 4, 2012, 1:19:28 PM6/4/12
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On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 1:16 PM, Alan Evans <alanw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wonder Nate, how does one crimp those?  I've used a small (eyeglass)
> flat screwdriver to do one or two.  But if one were doing a bunch of
> them that might not be ideal.

Generally, if you are doing a lot of them, you pick up a crimper for
them. Hansen Hobby has a nice ratcheting one for around US$40. There
may well be something like this at the space already.

Short a crimper, a pair of needle-nose pliers work OK, if you are
careful in folding over the little wings.

Paul Kerchen

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Jun 4, 2012, 1:39:02 PM6/4/12
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'dupont wire' returns pretty good results too: assembled ribbon cable with connectors; assembled separate cables with connectors; and unassembled pins and housings.  Who knew there was such a market for these?

Paul



On Monday, June 4, 2012 7:52:22 AM UTC-4, Aaron Dubin wrote:
solderless jumper female
use that search string and you should get what you're looking for i think.

On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 4:55 AM, Shawn McCombs <0thei...@gmail.com> wrote:
Does anyone know how to find these on ebay?

http://www.adafruit.com/products/266


Also is there a good set of drill bits for pcb holes? I made my pcbs
with eagle and default settings so they are pretty small. I tried
measuring them and they are about 1mm so the bits would have to be
smaller. Any ideas?

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Nathaniel Bezanson

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Jun 4, 2012, 2:00:17 PM6/4/12
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On Jun 4, 1:16 pm, Alan Evans <alanwev...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wonder Nate, how does one crimp those?

There are two special-purpose FCI crimpers in the lab that work
exceedingly well for these contacts. They have a spring-loaded
mechanism that holds the contact while you cycle the tool, and the die
has two areas to hit both the contact portion and the insulation
portion in one step. They're also ideal for D-sub crimp pins, and
generally work well for anything in the 22-24-26AWG range with two
sets of tangs.

-Nathaniel-

eric©

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Jun 4, 2012, 3:23:53 PM6/4/12
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Damn...at $18, I'm tempted to order the thousand for my own use here at home.  Sure, I'll likely NEVER go through that many, but that's cheap enough that the convience of being able to make my own custom lengths on the fly would be worth it.  Not to mention there's already been a few times that I've needed to make custom headers in oddball shapes and numbers that resulted in a very amateurish looking glob of dremeled plastic and hot glue that these single pins would have been extremely handy for. 

Thanks for the legwork, Nate! :)

Eric

Shawn McCombs

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Jun 4, 2012, 6:05:08 PM6/4/12
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It seems if you use "Dupont" with a few other keywords dealing with
the jumper wires that it will pull them up a lot easier.

Keith Mc

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Jun 5, 2012, 12:13:50 AM6/5/12
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Shawn McCombs <0theifdark0@...> wrote:
> Does anyone know how to find these on ebay?
> http://www.adafruit.com/products/266

Do you need a 2-conductor, or would a 1-conductor be good for you?

Personally, I'd also dig around the Pololu site: ... http://www.pololu.com
They have decent prices, oodles of 0.100" housings, pins, and premade
F-F jumpers in many colors and lengths. If you can't find a jumper of
the right wire count and length premade there, then given the crimp
tool you can definitely whip one up to your spec out of the raw parts.

But really... Quan 40 of 6" jumper sets with both connectors on it for
$6.95 works out to be under 18 cents each (plus shipping).
If that's what you need, then IMO, that's really not too bad of a price.

- Keith Mc.

Keith Mc

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Jun 5, 2012, 12:39:42 AM6/5/12
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Alan Evans <alanw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wonder Nate, how does one crimp those? I've used a small (eyeglass)
> flat screwdriver to do one or two. But if one were doing a bunch of
> them that might not be ideal.

In FIRST robotics, we do a lot of crimping.

For small signal (eg 0.100") hand crimping, my favorite hand tool is the
Waldom/Molex WM9999 (Digikey WM9999-ND):
... http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/63811-1000/WM9999-ND/243789
Its large number of "tu-lip" style dies easily handles every size of mini
crimp that I've ever run across, in one tool, and it costs about $38.

BTW...

For the larger 0.250" and 0.187" spade, flag, and ring tongue lug apps,
I just use a standard single indent nub automotive crimping tool.

For the giant (eg 6ga) wire connectors, if you're going crimp vs screw-on,
there's the Harbor Freight hydraulic crimper (that often goes on sale),
or simply smashing the heck out of it with a vice <grin>.
You can optionally add in a small drill bit as a hardened steel rod
between the vice and the connector to accomplish the "dent"
(to make a sort of TuLip connection). Either way, I then touch it up
with a soldering iron and solder to insure a solid connection,
and toss some heat shrink over it. (We haven't had one fail yet
doing it that way... :-)

Now assembling and crimping the Anderson Power Connector
terminals to 6ga wire is a whole different animal. You should
find a real iris style crimper for that, or try the HF hydraulic crimper.

I hope that helps.
- Keith Mc.

Nathaniel Bezanson

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Jun 5, 2012, 10:32:05 AM6/5/12
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On Jun 5, 12:39 am, Keith Mc <a...@provide.net> wrote:
> For small signal (eg 0.100") hand crimping, my favorite hand tool is the
> Waldom/Molex WM9999 (Digikey WM9999-ND):
> ...http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/63811-1000/WM9999-ND/243789
> Its large number of "tu-lip" style dies easily handles every size of mini
> crimp that I've ever run across, in one tool, and it costs about $38.

Woo, THANK YOU for that link! I've been looking for something like
that, with a wide range on the small side of things. It looks like the
jaws are stamped from 12ga steel, which means they'll be narrow enough
(~2.7mm) for the smaller terminals that are all over small
electronics. Next time the e-room money drawer has $40 in it...

For the automotive terminals I handle at work, two crimpers do the
job:

The smaller one does 95% of the work, from the ubiquitous small-signal
GET 0.64mm terminals on 22AWG, up to the fairly-serious 2.8mm
terminals on 18AWG. It also finds itself at home on D-sub and similar
terminals, though the thickness of the jaws (4mm) means that the crimp
area is too wide for some of the tiny PC-style connectors, and it ends
up smashing the insulation area while trying to crimp the wire area.
http://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/product_info.php/cPath/111_112_170/products_id/364

That one also has the round nests for Metri-Pack seals, which I was
completely ignorant of before starting this project at work. For
anyone who's done DIY wiring harness repair, I feel your pain!

And this one hits the larger range, I use it up to about 10AWG on the
yikes-where-you-goin-with-that-thing 9mm terminals:
http://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/product_info.php/cPath/111_112_170/products_id/362

> For the giant (eg 6ga) wire connectors, if you're going crimp vs screw-on,
> there's the Harbor Freight hydraulic crimper (that often goes on sale),
> or simply smashing the heck out of it with a vice <grin>.

For these, there's a TBM25s/TBM21e in the space. It handles 8AWG
through 2AWG round-barrel lugs, also C-taps which aren't seen much in
hobby. It also does a fantastic job on little aircraft-cable sleeves,
though we haven't pull-tested those to see if they're up to spec. Find
'em used on eBay; they're like $300 new.

> You can optionally add in a small drill bit as a hardened steel rod
> between the vice and the connector to accomplish the "dent"

Clever! The resourceful hobbyist who does a lot of that sort of
crimping might weld up a set of vise-jaw "dies" with some guide pins,
an indent, and a nest... As long as the task doesn't call for getting
the tool into tight spaces, that sounds like a five-dollar solution to
a whole mess of problems.

> with a soldering iron and solder to insure a solid connection,
> and toss some heat shrink over it.  (We haven't had one fail yet
> doing it that way... :-)

Heatshrink is essential here, because it moves the stress point away
from the now-stiffened-by-solder wire. Otherwise flexure kills the
wire, right behind the tang, in pretty short order. Adhesive-lined
heatshrink is much stronger because it grips the guts, but it's
expensive. The cheap-and-cheerful alternative is to shave slivers off
a stick of hot-melt glue and introduce 'em to the mess before
shrinking.

> Now assembling and crimping the Anderson Power Connector
> terminals to 6ga wire is a whole different animal.  You should
> find a real iris style crimper for that, or try the HF hydraulic crimper.

Can't recommend these enough:
http://www.powerwerx.com/crimping-tools/pp75-sb50-powerpole-crimper.html

If you can't find a decent eBay deal on a T&B, this is your boy, and
it's astonishingly affordable. Four nests accomplish almost any indent
crimp, though the narrow width means you'll end up making 2 or 3 bites
along the barrel where other tools may do the same job with fewer.

Have you tried the hammer crimpers? I see 'em all over eBay, they're
recommended by a lot of the HomePower-type DIY solar folks, and I've
never played with one. Seems like a sensible way to make a nest and
deliver a lot of force, but without as much control as the vise-jaw
method above. (Could probably turn it sideways in a vise and get the
best of both worlds.)

Sorry Shawn, your micro-pin crimper question has morphed into mega-
cable crimper discussion. :)

-Nathaniel-

Nathaniel Bezanson

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Jun 5, 2012, 2:54:52 PM6/5/12
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Addendum: Save four bucks on the WM9999 crimper by searching for the
Molex part number 63811-1000 on Mouser, where it's four bucks cheaper
than Digikey, at qty 1. Probably not enough to tip the balance unless
you frequently order from 'em anyway.

Also FYI, The Right Crimper that the guys in the lab next door just
ordered is an Xcelite MIC3020BL, which comes up on Amazon for $103.
This has very nice dies but I'm thinking it offers few advantages over
the 63811 above. Compound leverage really comes into play when you're
doing hundreds of terminations per day, but most of us aren't.

Truth be told, if you're only concerned with the tiny pins, one of
these:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103683
may be almost as good, and oh wow, is it cheap.

I still own a very similar-looking Radio Shack crimper, except that it
has 5 nests up front. The mix is well-chosen, and it does a passable
job on almost every uninsulated terminal I've thrown at it. I can't
find the part number now, nor do they seem to sell it anymore, but I'm
curious to see if anyone here can find a source. Here's a really good
photo with no part number:
http://www.jbwilco.com/canopy-gear_warning.htm

-Nathaniel-
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