Plugs For Stepper Motors

Hi,

Does anyone have any favorites when it comes to plugs for stepper motors?

I am looking for a four prong plug for my steppers to use consistently on my projects.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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FabberForge - Printing Happiness

[www.fabberforge.com]

If you are rolling your own, I've used this series Molex on other projects with great results in heavy demand, high performance applications for thousands of connections. It's the Molex that is on many computer and power projects. The chassis mount snap in shell is shown here Molex 4 conductor shell with the associated parts shown in the listing and here is the female contact Molex Socket Contact. The downside for small batch fab is the cost of the tooling, specifically the crimp tool at about US$300 though they are available in solder ends as well though we only use the crimps. Molex Crimp Tool

I have an mdpc crimping tool, so crimping is an option

These are what I got.... Still waiting on the crimpers.

Dupont Jumper Wire Cable (male/female) Pin Connector 2.54mm Pitch #45
Non Insulated tabs and receptacles Ratchet Crimping Plier AWG 28-18 TAB2.8mm

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Custom all metal CoreXY
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Idolcrasher Wrote:
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> I have an mdpc crimping tool, so crimping is an
> option


That would work well for any crimps. We use EDAC/Elco crimpers with different mandrels for different sizes. We do have one connector called a Microdot which does require its own crimper (to the tune of US$700...) but that's a sub miniature electronics connector. It would burn up on a motor but that might be fun to watch... ;-)

The Dupont looks to be a better fit than the Molex. The Molex is 6-12 amps, plenty enough for a 1.8 amp motor and the Dupont is much less expensive, fits easier on a board and will do 2 amps @ 125 vac which will be plenty for a motor like we use on the printers and desktop CNC. You can source them at Alibaba and get some good prices in modest quantities. Very likely the same (or of like quality) to what you'd get a Newark, Digikey, etc.

if you want go the cheap way, you can get hard drive connectors very cheap $4 for 10 on ebay

Mogal Wrote:
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> These are what I got.... Still waiting on the
> crimpers.
>
> Dupont Jumper Wire Cable (male/female) Pin
> Connector 2.54mm Pitch #45
> Non Insulated tabs and receptacles Ratchet
> Crimping Plier AWG 28-18 TAB2.8mm
>

I have been using a similar system, Molex CGrid, which has the advantage of polarity and a latching tab. example here [uk.rs-online.com]|acc I use the cheap universal plier type crimping tool, which squashes the crimps a bit too much, requiring some extra work inserting the crimp into the housing, but for small jobs its ok.

At work we use Molex micro-fit for lower current applications, nice if you can afford the crimping tool!

Does anyone know where to buy the jumper cables already made (like 6 foot length, 4 pin, dual female jumper connector)?

Most RepRap electronics agree on the Molex KK100 (or clone thereof) connector for the motors. With friction ramp to avoid accitental unplugging. Earlier ones (Gen2, Gen3, Gen7 <= v1.3) used the bigger KK156 ones. I see no reason to deviate from that, making electronics exchangeable is a feature.

Crimp contacts don't neccessarily require a crimp tool. They can be soldered just fine.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Here is the KK product line info... Molex KK Connector Line

Having a standard is reason enough to use them. From what I can gather, depending on the motor and the board/driver electronics it's posible for the pin assignments to be different. Is there some sort of standard pin assignment?

It's not 4 pin but I used serial 9D's with colour coded back shells, pretty generic and easy to solder!