Greetings!
Today's project, I wanted it small enough to fit into a 3" x 4" plastic case. The Arduino Nano, 16x2 LCD display and circuits wouldn't fit onto one board, so I put them on two. To connect the two, I used a chunk of ribbon cable from an old computer. I needed at lest 7 connections between the two boards, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with. However, there must be a better way than computer ribbon, especially if later I wanted to disconnect one board from the other, like the quick-disconnecting ribbon cable of the display of a laptop to the board, if you can relate that illustration. Any suggestion, please?
Also, bonus question, if I may indulge: For wiring the circuits in general, I used Cat-5 strands. Yeah, computer parts laying around are fair game, right? Well, the Cat-5 gave me 8 different color options, and the gauge was good for the milliamp loads. It soldered nicely too. But the insulation did not like the solder heat, shrinking back and exposing a bit of wire. What are some of your favorite wire options for circuit board build-up?
I use the black female header strips, like the ones that are on the Arduino Uno board, and connect that to rows of pins.
Even with bad quality from Ebay, they always make good contact.
To shorten the female header strip, I use a cutter and cut in the middle on a pin. I remove the copper of the pin and tidy up both ends.
One more thing... When I have many wires on the prototype board, I fix everything with pcb flux spray. That prevents corrosion, it fixes the wires a little, and adds a small layer of protection while it still is possible to solder something (it is 'flux' spray).
To have insulation that does not shrink from solder use PTFE coverd wire. However it is a sod to strip.
All other insulation shrinks, just cut less off to compensate, or tin the wire first then snip off the excess wire.
The reason CAT5 insulation shrinks is that it is not PVC (which would be too lossy
for 200m runs), but polythene or something similar that absorbs less moisture than PVC)
The typical connectors for linking boxes with many connections are D-type, although they
are a pain to solder and a bit clunky.
I have used IDC dip headers on flat cable. The headers plug into DIP sockets. Both the headers and sockets are pretty cheap. You need a tool (crimper) to make the cables up. They are not secure enough for anything but inter board connections that are semi-permanent.
Wow, thanks guys! What a gold-mine of ideas; hot-glue gun (Hot snot, nice) for strain relief and board insulate bare components, various wire options and connectors. Very helpful, many thanks.
