Dupont Female Connectors Sticking out

Hi everyone, I'm building a Prusa i3 and I am sourcing all the parts myself. I am doing the electronics now. I bought 4 position 2.54mm dupont housings and female pins. Each came from seperate sellers though. I have done similiar criming before for RC servos but those housings seem longer than these.

I have a d sub crimping tool from radio shack that I am using.
After crimping the wires this is what is happening in the picture below. I have to insert the connector that far into the housing before it clicks. These are infact female pins not male but are sticking out like it. Am I doing something wrong or do I need to buy new housings?



Thanks everyone!

Does it work better if you turn the connector housing around?????

No I tried rotating the connector and it made no difference. Because the pin doesn't click in until after the part which spreads apart and that's where it's at now.

Edit:
Also worth noting. If I push the pin in all the way it is the exact length of the connector but it doesn't snap in until the connector is pushed past the hole and it sticks out.

These are the pins and housings I have:
Housings:
[www.ebay.com]

Pins:
[www.ebay.com]

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2014 09:30PM by AEracer7.

If I recall correctly, the pins have the contact fingers, then a flat spot, and then the crimp area, then another flat spot, and finally the insulation crimp area. The clip tab in the connector housing grabs on the flat spot of the pin directly behind the contact fingers. If you put the pin into the hole oriented so that the flat spot was not in the correct orientation, it will slide right past the clip tab and lock at the end of the crimp instead. Also, if your crimp tool did not make a flat spot, it may be the reason why the pin is not catching on the clip tab.....

I can watch the pin as it is entering the connector and below is a picture of where it is grabbing.
Also below is a picture showing the connector next to the housing showing they are equal in length but the flat spot doesn't line up with the tab.

The first picture shows where it grabs, the second shows the pin and housing are equal in length and the third shows that the pin sticks out if you line up the flat spot with the tab in the housing.

I've done quite a lot of these myself (more than a 150 for sure) and I can say without a doubt those metal crimps don't match the plastic housings at all.

What I advice you to do is to order a bag of 20 precrimped cables through Ebay, free shipping etc. Thats what I did for my last project and all I did was crimp wires together and shrinkwrap everything and it worked way better. I seriously dislike crimping connectors and I've seen a machine do it way better and faster than me.

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

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Ohmarinus
I've done quite a lot of these myself (more than a 150 for sure) and I can say without a doubt those metal crimps don't match the plastic housings at all.

I have swapped pre-assembled pin orders in probably twice as many of these connectors over the years, and I agree that the pins are not the correct ones for those housings.....

from the ebay link you gave in description it says "Works for our female HD15 connectors" witch are d-sub connectors.

vriehen shows the correct pins.

Could I cut the ends off these for now until new pins I order from China come in? Or could I use them with the ends sticking out for the time being? The cheapest us based source I found was pololu at 10 shipped for 100 pins so I'm just going to order them from China probably.

The RepRap police will not be knocking at your door for trying to use the wrong pins and they stick out a little. Try them and see if they work, looking out for any problems where they might move and short together or onto something else. The D-sub holes are usually a tighter tolerance, so I suspect that what will happen is that the header pins that you are trying to push in will just push those wrong pins aside and not go into the holes clean. But, you never know until you try.....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2014 06:53PM by vreihen.

Quote
AEracer7
Could I cut the ends off these for now until new pins I order from China come in? Or could I use them with the ends sticking out for the time being? The cheapest us based source I found was pololu at 10 shipped for 100 pins so I'm just going to order them from China probably.

Yes,forget the housing, put some heat shrink tubing on the pins/ wires to prevent them touching electrically, then plug 'em in. Make sure you have them in order!

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