Cost-efficient way to get some 4mm male jeack to Dupont male cable (breadboard)? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: nightfire
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2023, 01:29:24 am
content: I already have a set of cables (red/black) with 4mm lab jacks on one end and a male Dupont plug on the other end- which I really like to get some multimeter to the breadboard.(Something like here:https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005001775485392.html)But this stuff is not cheap if it comes in decent quality.So I thought of making my own cables. What I want is decent quality and a bit thicker cables than the usual flimsy thin quality where you really have to take care not to bend them too much...I thought of the following methods:a) buy some good quality Dupont breadboard cables, cut them in half, and mount some standard 4mm connector on themb) buy some thin 4mm lab cables, cut them in half, and mount a Dupont male connector on themc) like b), but instead crimp a dual wire connecting connector on the cable and solder to the other end a standard PCB post connectorQuestions here:-Which breadboard cable manufactorer can be recommended, that is available in germany/EU?- Whith which tools do I put connectors for breadboards on my cable? I am very familiar with crimping, but would suspect that standard crimping tools for mains installation etc. would be uneven and the resulting connector would damage the breadboardIdeas, comments?

author: nightfire
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2023, 01:39:26 am
content: Addendum: There is the Hirschmann MAL N4-0,64 SW cable, which ends in a female Dupont jack, 0,64mm- I guess I could in this case also use some Dupont female connectors and put some standard PCB post in them to make them male...Question here: Where do I get good quality jacks/tools for those Dupont connectors? I do not want to go the Aliexpress route for cheap and not satisfying crappy stuff, but also do not want to spend triple-digit €€€ on professional tools that will do less than 100 crimpings in the next years.

author: mwb1100
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2023, 01:51:14 am
content: Quote from: nightfire on February 22, 2023, 01:39:26 amA couple of fairly recent threads (or at least recent activity) about crimpers for dupont connectors:-Crimpin’ ain’t easy (or: best hobbyist crimping tool/system?)-Affordable crimp tools for small connectors (Dupont, etc.)

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2023, 04:12:57 pm
content: Quote from: nightfire on February 22, 2023, 01:29:24 amI suspect you don’t realize how deep a rabbit hole this is!See e.g.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/breadboard-test-leads/For what it’s worth, I understand your desire: I use my homemade banana-to-DuPont cables all the time.Nobody sells truly ideal breadboard pins. Male DuPont pins are susceptible to snapping off (but they’re cheap and remain my go-to for this), and the round steel pins on commercial breadboard jumpers are not available by themselves.TE MQS connectors use solid metal pins, basically solid metal header pins welded to the crimp terminal. Really nice, but won’t fit in DuPont housings, and heat shrink over them makes them ever so slightly wider than 2.54mm, so can’t use rows of them side by side. Also fairly expensive.In the end, there’s no inexpensive way to make something of excellent quality. The crimp tools make it impossible.I mean, you could solder wires to individual header pins and heat shrink them.