Fab Academy at AS220 Labs

July 27, 2010 11:16 AM

Making Programming, Connector and Serial Cables

by Anna Kaziunas France

The Fab Academy Assignment: make serial and programming cables

cables

Most of the effort in putting the cables together should be directed at figuring out how the pins match up to the wires before attempting to put the cable together.

Headers:

  • Use 6-pin headers for the programming cables
  • 4 pin headers for everything else (you can use a 6 pin header if you map it correctly, the unused pins will hang off the side of the pins, but that is fine.
  • Serial cable header / connector.

The rest of the cable assembly is fairly simple. Using the diagram that you created to match up the pins - thread the wires through the connector, (ensuring they are in the correct pin positions). Then crimp the wires with the connector by pressing down until the header is securely attached.

If you need to split ribbon cable wires into segments in order to map the pins correctly, secure the strands with electrical tape to make it more difficult to pull them out of the header.

cablecables

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