keyed jumper cables/connectors

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1

I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to find a combination of connectors and cable that match these requirements:

  1. small (2.54mm pitch or less)

  2. 3 conductor

  3. commonly available cable (no need to make it myself)

  4. keyed to maintain polarity

I have come across a few options, 1) the 3 pin JST=PH, 2) a CDROM style cable, and 3) the ‘grove’ connector. The CDROM connectors are expensive for my project, would be the most expensive component, and I can’t seem to find short-ish ones. The 3-pin JST would work, but I can’t find any jumper cables with a female JST on both sides. I’ve also considered the ‘grove’ connectors from seeedstudio, but they’re difficult to source given that it’s 3-4 weeks delivery for sane shipping costs. People say there are similar male connectors readily available, but no cables.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

2

If you need custom cables, then you have to build them yourself. Digikey has every kind of connector you can dream up. You will also need the crimp pins for those connectors, then the cable. I assume that you want a 3 wire ribbon cable, which you can source cheaply if you look on Ebay. This way, you can have the connectors you want and the length you need.

3

[This isn’t keyed, but I think it meets all your other requirements. Probably is a keyed version already being sold somewhere.](Servo Cable - Female to Female - ROB-09187 - SparkFun Electronics)

4

Thanks guys. That’s the issue, I don’t want a custom cable, because I can’t make 1000.

I’m using the servo cables right now, but plugging it in backward is not good, so I wanted a keyed version.

5

If you need 1000 then you have enough money to have them custom made. Yes, it will be a few dollars more, but you don’t have to make them yourself.

Search “polarized 3 pin cable”

6

sor:
Thanks guys. That’s the issue, I don’t want a custom cable, because I can’t make 1000.

I’m using the servo cables right now, but plugging it in backward is not good, so I wanted a keyed version.

You don’t have to make them yourself. I have no idea what the budget on this is, but all my wiring needs are met by a wire processor. They can supply wire, cut to length and stripped cheaper than I can buy the bare wire. They also purchase and crimp on whatever contacts I need and ship to me. The only thing I have to do is insert contacts into housings which is a trivial job. 1,000 would take about 2 working days, but it probably doesn’t have to be done all at once.

No, it’s not as cheap as finding the entire assembly off the shelf, made by someone in the 10’s of thousands, but it is cheaper and faster than doing it yourself.

Even cheaper is buying the wire cut to length and using IDC connectors and an IDC press to terminate the ends yourself. That’s about the fastest manual assembly possible and making one cable every 15 seconds or so once you get into the groove is not unreasonable.