Boring query about connecting wires...

[Hippogriff]

What do you folks recommend for easy, discreet and more-than-temporary connection of wires?

I have jumper cables for breadboarding, and wires I solder to veroboard for the next stage of prototyping... often I used the small black headers with screws on the top... I've recently bought a crimping tool so I can create nice Dupont cables with the long, thin, cuboid black plastic boxes on the end (these are great for sticking components into, or connecting onto female pin headers soldered to a board)... I also use a fair amount of chocolate box stuff, but that's big and really clunky (feels like it's more for household electrics than electronics) and requires 2 screws!

Is there a really snazzy cable connection method out there that I can buy into? I'm thinking something that's push-in rather than screw-in, something that's nice and small - not big and chunky like a chocolate box, maybe something that has pins of the right pitch to go into breadboards / veroboard, I'd also like something that I can cram bare wires into - as opposed to something I need to have prepared by putting a plug on. I guess that I'm looking for a convenience recommendation over-and-above a cost recommendation.

Is this a pipe-dream? My searching thus far has not come up with anything overly obvious... maybe it's 'cos of the cost implications? I would love to hear what others have found really convenient when they want to create quick connections and possibly leave them there for a long time, but - alternatively - they might want to disconnect things at a moment's notice.

 

[tomizett]

Have you come across "Euroblock" or "Phoenix" connectors? They might be up your street. Imagine half a choc-block (which you can clamp your wires into) with a set of shrouded pins on the other side which you plug into a matching header on your board.
They come in a variety of numbers of ways and, I think, different sizes for different currents.

I also bought something similar recently from these people:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/quasarcomponents/m.html

 

[Hippogriff]

Thanks. Euroblock looks interesting... I'd not seen that before. I think it's a little chunky (I'd need to check on the physical size) but it seems convenient. Are there any other favourites out there?

 

[audioguru]

When I worked with telephone conference systems I used "66 blocks" to punch down and connect millions of wires. Each bock held 25 pairs (50 wires) as the input.

 

[Hippogriff]

I'm [pipe-]dreaming about a plastic component that's probably about 10mm wide and 5mm thick that has holes at each side and two buttons on the top, when you push the button the wire aperture allows a wire to be shoved in, when you release the button it locks down and the wire is held securely, same on the other side... when there are two wires in it allows the electrons to flow! Then there could be a 10mm by 10mm 2-way piece and so on... or they could be made bigger in a modular fashion, like headers. No screws!

I would pay about 50p for these things... and that's saying a lot, right?

I'd also be happy if the button was a lever.

 

[Mike_2545]

I see you are in the UK, don't know if you can order from here or not, but I have found these to be ideal;

**broken link removed**

They have the 4 pin shown along with a 10, 3 and 2 pined ones as well.

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/189/connectors-multi-pin/1.html

 

[Hippogriff]

Thanks! These are KK connectors, is that right?

I really liked the look of these - I bought some... I have a bunch of 2-ways to play with... but the issue is that I bought the plugs, the crimps and the sockets and, therefore, I need to assemble the things before I can use 'em. That's fine, but it's part of the reason why I'm searching for something else.

These versus Dupont connectors... well, they seem much of a muchness once I'd played with both.