Little thread on what’s one of the harder hands-on engineering things I’ve done in my life. A real test of dexterity and eyesight: crimping a wire to put in a connector. A JST PH connector to be precise. What’s crimping? Here is an expert tutorial iotexpert.com/jst-connector-
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The goal is to clamp that little metal bit onto the wire (24 AWG solid core) and snap it into the connector. Two crimped wires in, and you have a 2-pin female connector.
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First attempt went badly. Got the crimp on ok but then accidentally crimped the pin end that should snap into connector rather than the “wings” that go over insulation.
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Second attempt wire popped out as I was doin the first crimp (of the exposed wire). You can see the messed up crimp (top) and intact one (bottom). The middle tabs crimp over wire, longer wings (at right on top) over the insulation.
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Third times the charm. Well sort of. It’s not great but got both crimps roughly right and it snapped properly into connector.
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The crimping tool is really fidgety. Here’s me getting it wrong.
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Those closeups taken with microscope btw. The crimps are about 5mm long.
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Next: gonna try crimping 22 awg (a bit thicker) stranded as other wire for same connector. Then actually plug in male connector and test continuity.
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Okay, kinda got it right, but it was a bitch to shove it in which makes me thing I didn’t do the insulation crimp right or 22awg stranded is too much. See how I had to shove it in? (the connector end has a metal tab that ideal snaps in place for a nice irreversible join.
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Good to know 🤣
I did try stranded 22 first, but it seemed to hard so tried 24 solid core just to get mechanics right. And yes I did use a crimping tool.
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Replying to @vgr
a) you can’t crimp solid core and b) you need a proper crimping tool. it should have hardened metal guides with two layers and be matched with the size of the connector
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This is my crimping tool. PA-09 which seems to be the generic entry-level thing good for both JST and DuPont.
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Next, let’s try connecting it up. The white wire is the (apparently illegal) illegal 24 awg solid core crimp, a C-. The green is the 22 awg stranded core legal but crappy (D-) crimp.
Will it connect? Will current flow?
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Well it snapped on ok though a bit snug.
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And the green does too. Woohoo! (The beeping on both videos is the continuity tester on my multimeter)
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Incidentally. I bought a box of the wrong size JSTs so I have a bunch to practice on and ruin. My project needs 1mm/1.5mm ZH/SH connectors and 2.54 for standard pcb/breadboard connections. These 2mm PH are no immediate use so gonna make a bunch of useless practice cables.
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Aside: pre-crimped wires are a thing and that’s what I plan to use where possible. I need to learn manual process though, to do some components that came with uncrimped wires already attached.
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Next adventure in wire-harnessing will be punch-down IDC connector for ribbon cable..
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This is my wax-on/wax-off plan as well.
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Replying to @vgr
Man, I just got into building speakers which requires endless stripping and crimping and I hated it so much.
So I just made myself do 100x strip and crimps and taught my hands to do it (hat tip @visakanv).
Now it just happens without me thinking about it.
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My crimps so would not pass nasa workmanship standards workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp/2%20b
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Bought the Iwiss tool recommended plus DuPont connector kit. Considering doing a mix of JST and DuPonts for what I need.
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The tool came with more crimp shaming
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Kinda hacked it by recrimping using the 24 AWG die even though I’m using 22 AWG wire. The connector can handle 22-28 supposedly but since 22 is the biggest maybe it’s harder?
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Made a little video of me testing the new craptastic dupont MF connector. It works, but it's definitely really shoddy work.
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Made a 24 AWG one, but it didn’t work much better. 😬
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The hardest part of this is not knowing whether I'm doing something wrong, or whether the tool or materials are wrong. Gonna have to try a couple more times with variations to see if I can get one to go exactly right. Filming me doing the actual crimping will be tough.
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All my crimps are bad. Gonna have to practice a few dozen times I suspect, before I get the first perfect crimp.
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It’s a delicate, irreversible operation the wire goes between the wings. Bare in the middle, insulation into larger outer wings. Regular and microscope views.
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That’s actual bad. Stripped about 1-2mm too much so insulation isn’t in sufficiently.
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