First lab , essential connectors?? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: FireHazard
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2022, 09:41:18 pm
content: Hi all,First time here and just in the process of setting up a first lab, so I can go beyond the basics.Having spent a small fortune on a whim I have scopes, a function generator and a decent power supply on the way.I need connectors, would this be a sensible starting list:Banana plug to banana plugBanana plug to alligatorBanana plug to hook clipBNC to alligatorBNC to hook clipBNC to banana plugAre BNC T connectors, or 50 ohm terminators or anything like that advisable?Thanks in advance

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2022, 10:12:20 pm
content: QuoteOr buy a few alligator clips that fit onto banana plugs

author: nightfire
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 28, 2022, 10:24:45 pm
content: I personally like the idea to be flexible, so I planned my little home lab around lots of wires of different color and length with 4mm connectors.Probes and clips will be attached to them.By the way, I personally also like the dolphin clips for bigger objects to clip on, the hold a bit better than the standard crocodiles... Also available in single sided (when intended to be used in a CAT III/IV environment), the insulated side is some rubberized plastic that prevents it from slipping.Also nice are connectors like 4mm/banana to Dupont (like small breadboards).

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2022, 02:57:15 am
content: Alligator to alligator.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2022, 04:18:02 am
content: Keep in mind a lot of the alligator clip leads you can buy in sets are junk, I had a bunch of them fail before I finally started making my own. I bought 18 awg silicone wire in an assortment of colors from a place that sells RC hobby stuff and then I got a bag of decent quality alligator clips and made my own. That silicone wire is great, it's very flexible and you can load it until it gets quite hot and it won't melt the insulation.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2022, 08:09:23 am
content: I base my leads around xt60. I have banana pairs to xt60, alligator pairs to xt60, usb to xt60, dc barrel to xt60 etc... and a few homemade adapters like m-m xt60, f-f xt60, splitters (1f-2m 1m-2f), and ones for current taps (xt60 in, xt60 in the middle to go to a current measuringmmeter, xt60 out, and an xt60 to go to a voltage measuring meter).Makes it easy to have whatever cable is required. I also have a few wago lever blocks around for wire-to-wire connectors, and a few bare-wire to xt60, so I can solder them directly to stuff if needed.

author: wizard69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2022, 01:46:08 am
content: This depends a bit on where your interest lay. As such some general suggestions below. I'd suggest though to not go overboard at first.Quote from: FireHazard on April 28, 2022, 09:41:18 pmWelcome!!QuoteYou will need all of the above at some point. It also pays to have raw banana plugs to make cables to a specific device if you expect to work on a specific device. These days it can be very useful to have plenty USB cables and a power supply to plug them into.QuoteWhat might be useful here is again dependent upon your interests, however the number one thing you need for a scope is proper scope probes. Spend the money on the correct probes for your scope before buying specialize.QuoteWhen it comes to a lab you might benefit from buying roles of test lead wire in a few colors. Then make up application specific cable.Speaking of making (or buying) there are all sorts of alligators type clips out there for various uses. Some of those are nto available in preassembled cables.If you will be leaning to a lot of 12 VDC, possibly Ham related, Anderson connectors and the infrastructure around those connectors can be worth looking into. This sort of reflects upon the earlier suggestion to have pleny of USB cables as certain interests have different "standards" for power.Power is a big deal as you will need to run power to devices, sometimes more than one at once.If you are like most of us, you will end up with racks and drawers with nothing but cables in them. Some of them will only be useful for a short term so you need to accept that usefulness and your investment will expire. This is why fabricating and at times reusing old cables can make a lot of sense.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2022, 04:10:33 pm
content: Banana plugs have been the defacto standard for DMM's, power supplies, adapters to alligator clips and BNC and having an assortment of these is pretty much mandatory.I recommend to get some supple silicone isolated wires with stackable banana plugs. Short wires of around 30cm work best. Longer wires just clutter the workspace.When you stack a bunch of bananaplugs it gets quite bulky though.I also like the connectors used for mains wiring such as the WAGO 221 for electronics. They work quite well for both solid and supple wire. For supple wire on the workbench I prefer to tin the ends of the wires slightly (You should still be able to see the individual strands through the tin).I like these for semi-permanent higher power connections such as experiments with motor controllers, MOSFets, etc.These Connectors do wear out though. You can typically use them for a few hundred cycles, which is much less then a cent per cycle.I also have some banana plugs with just a piece of wire on the other end for use with the WAGO's.The "dupont" wires are quite crappy but still do work reasonably well for breadboard use.When I work with breadboards, I usually start with short solid wires for the things I'm sure of, such as power connections to microcontrollers or other breakout boards, and I use the "dupont" wires for quickly building up more. Because of their length and flexibility the dupont wires are quicker to make modifications.Having a bunch of solid wires does reduce the clutter on the breadboard.Get a bunch of dupont wires of all three types: Male, Female and Male <=> Female, so you can easily adapt between breadboards and 0.1" male headers (such as male IDC, etc) on matrix board.These wires are only fit for low current applications. Apparently they do not even have copper wire in them and have a quite high resistance.I also bought an SN-28B pliers to crimp my own connectors, but it's a very crappy plier that does NOT work well. Do not buy that garbage.

author: tepalia02
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 30, 2022, 06:04:40 pm
content: Hope you have added green connectors, Male headers and female headers too in your list.