Everybody loves breadboards, and they are easy to find online to purchase as well as jump wire. But does anybody know where to find a male to female ribbon cable (or female to female cable with a male to male header) suitable for breadboard sized connections? Specifically I need an eight pin connector for this keyboard (https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=152063), to attach to my Arduino Mega 2560. I don't want to do any soldering because I don't want the connection to be permanent. I have two examples:
You can get male-male to from breadboard to female header, or male-female, or female-female, different lenghts.
1x8, 1x6, 1x10, 2x8, whatever you need for housings. Make up whatever you need. I find these housings in different lenghts & different length wires to be really handy.
DISCLAIMER: Warning: Mentioning stuff from my own shop...
I have had cables made for almost everything (http://arduino-direct.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_list&c=19) but nice female-to-male jumpers are hard to find and I am having some made now that should be available in about a week. I want all cables to have insulated ends to be safer against short circuits.
What I do now is use the female-female jumpers and insert a pin in the females in one end. You CAN use #22 or 24 hookup wire, but pins from a wirewrap socket are better. They are still not totally stable, but they work. You can also use male-male connector strips like (http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1065).
I hate trying to breadboard something complex and fighting flakey connections!! This is one reason I really like the sensor shields (http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/SensorShield).. A female to male connected from Sensor shield to breadboard makes life easier.
If you have any other connectors needs or ideas please let us all know... This is a 'simple' but fundamental problem..