JackOfDiamonds
Well-known member
I'm on a multi-decade-long search for good DC wire connectors.
I have so many little projects and whenever I need to connect wires, I want to have some kind of standard plug/jack to use. It seems like the only truly universal thing is screw terminals or literally soldering the wires directly. Every time I try to make it convenient by making things connect with plugs, it just ends up I have things where the plugs aren't compatible anyway.
This came up again because I found out that the different wheels I have for my bike have...you guessed it...slightly different wire connectors. It seems like the Taiwanese (SP), Japanese (Shimano), and Germans (Son) couldn't get together and agree on a standard plug for bicycle dynamo hubs. So I can't swap my wheels between bikes without re-wiring a new plug! No problem says I; I'll just make a pigtail on each wheel to a standard plug, then I can swap between bikes that way. But I need to find a standard plug to use. Same problem. Need some kind of small, secure, preferably polarized and water resistant plug to use. If you look in the Digikey catalog, there's 53434 of them to pick from. Isn't there some kind of standard that could be used? Maybe some common de-facto standard from the 3D printing world or RC car world or something?
In the past I used the round barrel plug/jacks, like laptops used to use for the chargers. The problem is these aren't standard either, they have to be matched anyway. So no way to choose among the 300 different types of almost-identical barrel jacks. And they only have 2 connections and aren't water resistant at all.
At one point I decided I would standardize on 0.100" spaced pin headers, like for PCBs. Similar to RC car plugs. You can get nice modular plugs for them, and pre-crimped wires that you can insert, all color coded and everything, and it's a standard! But there's no matching setup for the male side, so the best you can do is hand-solder a PCB header. And it's not waterproof and not polarized.
Once I decided to use 3.5mm audio plugs and jacks. Because at least that's a standard...you can buy plugs and jacks from anywhere, and they will work. They also have 3 or 4 connections, and are polarized! The problem is they melt if you try to run any current through them, and they don't make very good contact which can make some circuits jitter, and they also momentarily short out when you insert them. And they come apart super easy.
It really seems like there should be some kind of common DIN or JIS standard for small DC connectors. Is there not? Just have to pick something up and it's only going to work for that one project?
Maybe insulated spade plugs and jacks are the best I could do for my bike hubs. I would like something a little more waterproof though. I remember when I was a boat mechanic, OMC had this whole kit of waterproof connectors that you could put together whatever connector you needed and they would all interchange at least within the same rough sizes. But that's probably just "another standard" and I don't know where to get those.
I have so many little projects and whenever I need to connect wires, I want to have some kind of standard plug/jack to use. It seems like the only truly universal thing is screw terminals or literally soldering the wires directly. Every time I try to make it convenient by making things connect with plugs, it just ends up I have things where the plugs aren't compatible anyway.
This came up again because I found out that the different wheels I have for my bike have...you guessed it...slightly different wire connectors. It seems like the Taiwanese (SP), Japanese (Shimano), and Germans (Son) couldn't get together and agree on a standard plug for bicycle dynamo hubs. So I can't swap my wheels between bikes without re-wiring a new plug! No problem says I; I'll just make a pigtail on each wheel to a standard plug, then I can swap between bikes that way. But I need to find a standard plug to use. Same problem. Need some kind of small, secure, preferably polarized and water resistant plug to use. If you look in the Digikey catalog, there's 53434 of them to pick from. Isn't there some kind of standard that could be used? Maybe some common de-facto standard from the 3D printing world or RC car world or something?
In the past I used the round barrel plug/jacks, like laptops used to use for the chargers. The problem is these aren't standard either, they have to be matched anyway. So no way to choose among the 300 different types of almost-identical barrel jacks. And they only have 2 connections and aren't water resistant at all.
At one point I decided I would standardize on 0.100" spaced pin headers, like for PCBs. Similar to RC car plugs. You can get nice modular plugs for them, and pre-crimped wires that you can insert, all color coded and everything, and it's a standard! But there's no matching setup for the male side, so the best you can do is hand-solder a PCB header. And it's not waterproof and not polarized.
Once I decided to use 3.5mm audio plugs and jacks. Because at least that's a standard...you can buy plugs and jacks from anywhere, and they will work. They also have 3 or 4 connections, and are polarized! The problem is they melt if you try to run any current through them, and they don't make very good contact which can make some circuits jitter, and they also momentarily short out when you insert them. And they come apart super easy.
It really seems like there should be some kind of common DIN or JIS standard for small DC connectors. Is there not? Just have to pick something up and it's only going to work for that one project?
Maybe insulated spade plugs and jacks are the best I could do for my bike hubs. I would like something a little more waterproof though. I remember when I was a boat mechanic, OMC had this whole kit of waterproof connectors that you could put together whatever connector you needed and they would all interchange at least within the same rough sizes. But that's probably just "another standard" and I don't know where to get those.
