DIY Jumper Wires

When I finally got my Arduino from e-Gizmo, I realized I need wires to connect my components onto it. During my college days I used #22 solid wires to make connection on a breadboard and this could work well for Arduino because the wire’s gauge would fit perfectly on the Arduino’s sockets.

One problem I anticipated with using solid wires is that the frequent insertion and pulling out of the wires would wear it especially near the ends. An alternative could be to use stranded wires but using it would be difficult when inserting the wires on the sockets.

After browsing the net I found a topic on how to make DIY Jumper Wires and this gaved me an idea on how I can create my own version of the DIY Jumper Wires.

Below are the detailed steps on creating the DIY Jumper Wires

Step 1: Prepare the materials

Materials I used are…

* Prices are true as of 20100301 and may vary depending on vendor and location.

Tools I used are Wire Stripper, Soldering Iron, and a Third Hand

Step 2: Extract the pins from the connector assembly

Extracting the pins from the header is not so difficult and in fact there are two methods that can be used to removed the pins from its assembly.

The first method is to heat the pins using a soldering iron until the plastic softens and the pins will just separate or fall out of its assembly. I chose the second method, using a shear cutter we can carefully remove the pins by cutting the plastic that holds them. The second method is faster but there’s a risk of damaging the pins if you apply too much pressure on it.

Same technique was used in extracting the female hirel pins out from an IC socket.

Step 3: Strip the wires

#20 Wires of about 16cm long are cut and ends (about 3mm) are stripped. The more colors you have the better because with it you can easily identify which signal a color represent when everything are jumbled up but unfortunately there are only few colors I found from 3 of our local suppliers.

Step 4: Tin the wires

To make it easier to solder the pins on the wire, wires are pre-tinned

Step 5: Solder the pins to the wires

With the help of a third hand, I was able to solder the pins on the wire very flawlessly.

Step 6: Cover the solder joints with shrinkable tube

I cover the solder joints with a shrinkable tube of about 5mm long to protect our hands from getting scratched by pointed parts of the joint and this also adds professional look on the product we’re making.

At first I tried to use a candle to heat the shrinkable tube but the technique was very messy and dark residue (abo/agiw) was forming on the wire ends. Heating the shrinkable tube with a cigarette lighter worked better.

Step 7: Storing

Finally I finished the DIY Connector . I used rubber bands on both ends to tie them all together.