pin pitch for connectors

Hey guys,
I need to purchase connectors for a PCB, but the PCB uses a pin pitch of 5.08mm, while the blocks listed on the picaxe store are listed as 5mm pitch. I'm guessing, as the difference is but 0.08mm, the picaxe ones should be fine? They're just the cheapest ones I've found as yet, and it means i could combine shipping etc, etc...

cheers
 

westaust55

Moderator
Strip board typically is on 2.54 mm centers so every second hole is 5.08 mm.
I have used 2-way spring terminals with 5.0 mm pole centers such as:
https://www.jaycar.com.au/2-way-spring-terminal-block/p/HM3140
They do work but it is a firm press to get them in. None have broken/failed.

How many ways are you looking at?
Suspect it could get a little harder to get them into the PCB with more than 2-ways.

Depends how big the PCB holes are. If the pads are large enough maybe slightly increasing holes may help.

Here is Aust where I am there is very little difference in cost for screw type terminals between 5.0 and 5.08 mm spacing
How many are you looking for that some extra cost becomes a serious factor?
 
Well...
Firstly, I can't alter the design of the PCB unfortunately... it's already been delivered, albeit unpopulated. I am looking for one of: 3-way, 5-way, 8-way, 14-way. The reason being, i need one connector for power (12V, 5V & 0V), one for programming the two chips (serin x2, serout x2, 0V), and one each for a 14M2 and a 20M2.

As for the cost, I've been looking exclusively at the connector specs specified for the PCB, which are 5.08mm pitch, 1.5mm2 conductor area. This rather narrowed my search results, with the only supplier I could find being Phoenix Contact, who are rather expensive... Would it maybe be an option to look generally at 5.08mm pitch connectors?
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
I am looking for one of: 3-way, 5-way, 8-way, 14-way.
Multi-way connectors can be formed from 2-way and 3-blocks, and many larger connectors may be exactly that, pre-joined but separable. In those cases the joining dovetails can be cut off and ends filed down or placed slightly further apart to create a better fit for boards where longer runs may be hard to fit as a single strip.
 
So presumably the 2/3 way connectors on the picaxe store would work then? Sorry, but I just want to be absolutely sure :) (keeps hand on his wallet...)
 

AllyCat

Senior Member
Hi,

I can't alter the design of the PCB unfortunately... it's already been delivered
OK, I happen to have a couple of the 3-way connectors (CON006) that I bought from the Picaxe Store "in case they came in useful". ;)

It's quite difficult to see whether the pitch is 5.0 or 5.08mm (0.2 inch), even using a magnifying glass and an engineers' steel rule, so the discrepancy over 2 or 3 holes is unlikely to be very significant. But I was surprised to find (using digital calipers) that the pitch definitely does seem to be 5.00 mm. Also, I guess that the "4-way" (CON005) is actually 2 x 2 ways (which the photo appears to show), because I can't see that it would be possible to "break" (or even cut) the 3-way into smaller (usable) parts.

However, note that the pins on these connectors are circular, with a diameter of almost exactly 1.0 mm (+/- 0.02 mm) so you might have a problem if the relevant PCB holes have been drilled to less than 1.2 mm diameter. They certainly aren't an "easy" fit in my sheets of glass-fibre "Veroboard", but OK in some other Paxolin (SRBP) and Perfboard.

Cheers, Alan.
 
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Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
CON006 is a 5mm spacing. As are the pads for it on on our project boards like CHI030, CHI035 etc. They are not imperial spacings, they are 5mm exactly.
 
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