Breadboards vs. Dual-Row Pin Headers (Dupont, Berg) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: cjs
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2020, 04:34:08 am
content: I have several early-80s computers and peripherals with external expansion bus or parallel I/O connectors of 30-50 pins or so on dual-row pin header (sometimes called "DuPont" or "Berg") connectors or micro-ribbon ("Centronics") connectors; these are normally connected to peripherals via a ribbon cable with IDC connectors on each end.I'd like to be able to bring these on to a breadboard so I can play around with building peripherals myself, or just break out some signals. But I can't just plug a male dual-row pin connector into a breadboard because vertically adjacent pins end up on the same breadboard connection strip; the adjacent pins are too close together to go on either side of the channel in the middle of the breadboard.Does anybody have any suggestions for easy ways of making this hookup?The two options that come to mind off-hand both involve using a ribbon cable with an IDC connector at the computer/peripheral end: on the other end I would have to split all the ribbon's wires apart and either solder individual wires to holes on a DIP IC socket or solder/crimp to single-row header connectors. In both cases I end up using multiple connectors on the breadboard end for larger buses such as a 50-pin expansion bus. This sounds tedious.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2020, 04:38:59 am
content: Use a ribbon cable with IDC connectors on both ends, then simply poke male jumpers into the plug on one end of the ribbon.

author: viperidae
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2020, 06:27:12 am
content: Google "RPI breadboard"You'll find 2x20pin ribbon connectors to breadboard breakout boards. Intended for raspberry pi

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2020, 06:50:34 am
content: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32899922375.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.3921320aP6czmw&algo_pvid=936727e0-be83-4cc0-a47f-7bdaac3c9303&algo_expid=936727e0-be83-4cc0-a47f-7bdaac3c9303-12&btsid=1742e23b-656e-445d-92bf-fc30d5773528&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_9,searchweb201603_53

author: cjs
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2020, 08:11:08 am
content: Thanks for the ideas about the Raspberry Pi "GPIO adapters," as they seem to be called on Ali Express. Those particular models aren't too useful to me since they're 26- and 40-pin models with shrouded connectors, and thus not usable with my most common sizes of 50 and 34 pins. But it does remind me that I have some perfboard kicking around and, with a bit of cutting I can easily make up a similar breakout board that I would find much easier to solder than mucking about with bare wires.And of course just sticking jumper wires in a female IDC connector is easiest of all, at least for small numbers of connections and where I'm not concerned about having to move the project.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2020, 08:42:12 am
content: You can get 0.3" wide IDC DIP headers - IDC to the cable with flat thruhole pins that solder to the board or fit in a DIL IC socket. You wont get 50 ways in one connector but you can easily split the ribbon cable and use several smaller ones on the breadboard end.One brand stocked at Mouser is CW Industries CWR-130 series.Caution: the pins are relatively fragile compared to a normal pin header, so its probably worth using a sacrificial turned pin DIL IC socket to protect them for breadboarding, which also lifts the connector giving you more clearance for wires and components on the side the cable comes out.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2020, 11:52:09 am
content: Ian.M's suggestion is what I was going to recommend; they have IDC connectors with a 0.3" DIP spacing which could be adapted to work.