I've just had an issue with something I built about 8 or 9 years ago and had a heck of a time finding the fault. In the end I found it was the jumper wires. I'm talking about the multi color ones that come in a ribbon that you pull apart as you need them - 15cm, 20cm, 30cm, etc.
I dissected one carefully and found that the 7 tiny strands inside actually "fell to pieces" as if rusty - not that they were rusty.
Thats pretty good for jumpers that are only suppost to be used for making short term prototype projects.
Thats why most established long term projects are soldered.
On the main board, apart from a dozen or so discrete components, I've bolted on a buck converter as well as an Arduino Uno. My thinking was that if one of these 2 died, I could unbolt them from the board and easily replace. One end of my wires are soldered to the board, but the other end fits in headers (like in the Uno).
The advantage also was, if I had to upload new code, I could remove the Uno and do it on the bench (as its up in the scoreboard). I was also worried about trying to program with my laptop, a CH340 and "long" cable, as I've found that problematic in the end.
But admittedly, I,ve never had to reprogram, so soldering would be ok.
Are you sure? Most cheap jumper wires nowadays are made of copper plated steel. Also the female connectors are often terrible and don't provide reliable connection.
I tossed out several hundred of those and bought the silicone covered wires. A bit more expensive but better in several ways. I got mine on AliExpress in bunches of 50. I also got one each of all RED all BLACK in the common lengths. Makes a difference!
A lot of stuff now that would have been brass or copper in the past, is now steel or aluminium.
Run a magnet over a collection of components, capacitors, resistors etc., and a fair few will have steel leads.
Enamelled aluminium crops up in motors now making it impossible to solder reliably.
Even the UK coinage has gone that way, with the low value ones being plated steel.
But be careful! All the 4000 series diodes have always had steel leads. Many years ago we recycled leads cut from components and had to separate them with a magnet.
It's tedious, but you can make up your own and choose the wire and the crimps and housings.
They aren't designed for long term repetitive use, and any barbs soon get loose.
Cables or wires with connectors usually fail where the wire is most likely to flex, close to the connector.
Thanks everyone. Great feedback. Main thing is its great to finally work out why my boards would fail on occassion. I was thinking it was the nfr24L01 remotes. But even the wires in there are dupont and fiddled with yearly when trying to change the 2xAA's in the w/proof box I've used. @jim-p, I drew up the boards and had them printed. I think I had 10 made and used 3.
I also had boards made for smaller digits that i could have connected 24/7 for testing when behind the scoreboard (see photo above). Also for remotes.
As for the female header pins, the arduino also has thru holes, so that alleviates that problem. The male ones, like the nrf, I might just solder wires directly on the pins. This would also be on the "time" module I have.
@xfpd , I ran a magnet on the wires and yes, some of them are attracted by the magnet. They'll be going straight in the bin. Interestingly, I just bought some new Dupont ones from Aliexpress and they're not magnetic. But these will be for breadboards only from now on. I've learnt my lesson the hard way.
@jim-p , at the time I was new to Arduino and even creating and printing circuit boards. Electronics is not my field. I put the Arduino demountable so I could replace it if it died. Essentially anything on the board that can die is easy to remove and replace - Uno, step down buck converter, NFR, TPIC6B595 shift registers, and clock module. I could quickly swap these out. As for "proper connectors", I didn't know of better connectors, nor know them now either. I'm a novice.
