Wiring Issues

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Bakuryu

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I'm new to this kind of stuff and have purchased a Teensy LC and a breadboard and I having issues getting my wires into the breadboard. The problem is the wires I am using are coming from gamecube extension cable and they are tiny,threaded, and incredibly flimsy. I was wondering what my options were to getting this into my bread board. I just tried tinning them, but the threads make it difficult to keep it all together and while the tinned part is hard enough to go into the bread board the rest of the wire is still very flimsy making it hard to push the wire into the board.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
There are lots of different solutions.

With stranded wire, you can usually add male crimp pins around the wire and make an appropriate connector. Here are links from Pololu:

Another alternative is to buy a set of dupont wire (jumper wire) and cut the cable in half. Strip part of the cable, and connect it to your cable. Solder the two wires together. Put some heat shrink tubing over the connection, and use a heat gun to make it shrink (or just use tape over the connection).
 
Another alternative is to buy a set of dupont wire (jumper wire) and cut the cable in half. Strip part of the cable, and connect it to your cable. Solder the two wires together. Put some heat shrink tubing over the connection, and use a heat gun to make it shrink (or just use tape over the connection).

***this***

For breadboarding, I buy these jumpers and then solder them to my wiring, and heatshrink the joint. A good amount of heatstrink will help with your flimsy wires too, maybe??
 
I just tried tinning them, but the threads make it difficult to keep it all together and while the tinned part is hard enough to go into the bread board the rest of the wire is still very flimsy making it hard to push the wire into the board.

Usually I strip an inch of the insulation, about 4X more than necessary. I twist the wires, but only the first half really twists tight. Then I tin it, moving the soldering iron towards the end so any excess solder stays at the end. Then just cut off all but the first 1/4 inch where the wires are twisted tight and tinned without any excess solder.

If the wire is #24 or larger, you might need to cut away some of the strands before twisting. Breadboards are designed for #22 size wire. Usually tinning tightly twisted #26 ends up close to #22 size with the solder added.
 
There are lots of different solutions.

With stranded wire, you can usually add male crimp pins around the wire and make an appropriate connector. Here are links from Pololu:

Another alternative is to buy a set of dupont wire (jumper wire) and cut the cable in half. Strip part of the cable, and connect it to your cable. Solder the two wires together. Put some heat shrink tubing over the connection, and use a heat gun to make it shrink (or just use tape over the connection).

The first option doesn't seem to bad although 100 of those pins seems excessive and expensive. The second option was something I was considering since I have another wire that fits into the board nicely and is a solid wire so I was considering soldering them together, but I don't have head shrinking tube or a heat gun.

***this***

For breadboarding, I buy these jumpers and then solder them to my wiring, and heatshrink the joint. A good amount of heatstrink will help with your flimsy wires too, maybe??

Yea I was considering this idea as I stated above, but I lack some of the tools.

Usually I strip an inch of the insulation, about 4X more than necessary. I twist the wires, but only the first half really twists tight. Then I tin it, moving the soldering iron towards the end so any excess solder stays at the end. Then just cut off all but the first 1/4 inch where the wires are twisted tight and tinned without any excess solder.

If the wire is #24 or larger, you might need to cut away some of the strands before twisting. Breadboards are designed for #22 size wire. Usually tinning tightly twisted #26 ends up close to #22 size with the solder added.

What annoying for me is the wires are so small even my wire stripper doesn't have a notch for it so I have to carefully cut the insulation to avoid cutting the internal wire or cause it to fray. I tried twisting the ends, but it never seemed to work. I did strip off a long section to do exactly what you explained and it does work well, but it still makes inserting the wire into the breadboard difficult do to the non tinned part being flimsy. Are you suggesting that I make the tinned wire long enough that I can stick it in the board and some of the tinned wire is exposed above the board?
 
some of the most common electrical problems that happen in the wiring system of homes in the U.S. and Canada,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Ok.... not sure what that has do to with this post, but thanks for the bump?

On a more related note, I am not sure if these are able to be broken into single pins, but if they can could I potentially solder the wire to those and maybe use some electrical tap or something to cover it?
 
Ok.... not sure what that has do to with this post, but thanks for the bump?

On a more related note, I am not sure if these are able to be broken into single pins, but if they can could I potentially solder the wire to those and maybe use some electrical tap or something to cover it?

You can use needle nosed pliers or wire cutters to separate them into single pins. You should be careful not to expose the pin (i.e. do the cut in the middle between two pins).
 
They are made to be broken apart. However, at times, I have broken them not at the middle, but shearing off part of the part holding the last pin.

Header pins are fun ... you can like snap 3 or four off cleanly and easily, but getting down to individual pins requires caution as @MichaelMeissner says.

I did a whole teensy project soldering to headerpins in strip board and I bet a lot of other people have done that too ;)
 
So either way I haven't fully decided on a strategy, but if I were to use the header pins I'll just order them here, but if I wanted to go back to maybe doing the crimper pins/heatshrink I was wondering just in general where the best place to buy this stuff from? I live in PA so dunno if that could be a factor of where best to get stuff from. I guess what I am asking for anyone who is also a computer person is what is the newegg.com of this kind of stuff?
 
I'm new to this kind of stuff and have purchased a Teensy LC and a breadboard and I having issues getting my wires into the breadboard. The problem is the wires I am using are coming from gamecube extension cable and they are tiny,threaded, and incredibly flimsy. I was wondering what my options were to getting this into my bread board. I just tried tinning them, but the threads make it difficult to keep it all together and while the tinned part is hard enough to go into the bread board the rest of the wire is still very flimsy making it hard to push the wire into the board.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Generally you want solid wire because it pushes into the breadboard holes.. I used to use (I'm just getting back into this with a Teensy 3.2) 22 gauge solid that I'd get from Radio Shack on spools. I had red, black, and at least one other color. Red for power, black for common, the other color(s) for other connections. Later this week I'll go by and find out if they still have it.
 
Generally you want solid wire because it pushes into the breadboard holes.. I used to use (I'm just getting back into this with a Teensy 3.2) 22 gauge solid that I'd get from Radio Shack on spools. I had red, black, and at least one other color. Red for power, black for common, the other color(s) for other connections. Later this week I'll go by and find out if they still have it.

The problem is the wires are already there, they are from the extension cable I cut. So I need to work with them somehow unless I want to remove them entirely from the connector and solder new wire onto that.
 
The problem is the wires are already there, they are from the extension cable I cut. So I need to work with them somehow unless I want to remove them entirely from the connector and solder new wire onto that.

Sorry, missed that. I assume you're trying to interface to the gamecube? Then go with the crimp pins mentioned by MichaelMiessner. That would be the quickest and easiest if you have to use the game cube cable. Soldering will also work but it's harder to get right.
 
Sorry, missed that. I assume you're trying to interface to the gamecube? Then go with the crimp pins mentioned by MichaelMiessner. That would be the quickest and easiest if you have to use the game cube cable. Soldering will also work but it's harder to get right.

Is there somewhere I can buy them cheaper then pololu.com? I see them on ebay, but I am not sure if they are the exact same ones, not sure if there is a specific size one I need. The wires from the game cube cable are very small my 20.22 gauge wire stripper is to big for them even.
 
There probably are places cheaper than pololu, but a lot of the cheaper places are typical foreign storefronts, that it might be weeks between order and delivery.

Note, in terms of fine wires, you might need to solder a larger wire onto the gamecube wire, as the holes in the male/female headers are made for standard wire gauges (I use 22 and 26 gauge wire).
 
There probably are places cheaper than pololu, but a lot of the cheaper places are typical foreign storefronts, that it might be weeks between order and delivery.

Note, in terms of fine wires, you might need to solder a larger wire onto the gamecube wire, as the holes in the male/female headers are made for standard wire gauges (I use 22 and 26 gauge wire).

Are you referring to the crimping pins? If your talking about the other headers I posted I can't tell from the picture where these holes you are referring to. I feel like soldering them to another wire then to the header would create a lot of points for weakness/error.
 
Are you referring to the crimping pins? If your talking about the other headers I posted I can't tell from the picture where these holes you are referring to. I feel like soldering them to another wire then to the header would create a lot of points for weakness/error.

I was talking about crimping pins. If the wire is too small, the crimping pin can pull off.
 
Are you referring to the crimping pins? If your talking about the other headers I posted I can't tell from the picture where these holes you are referring to. I feel like soldering them to another wire then to the header would create a lot of points for weakness/error.

As Michael said if the wires are really small they won't stay in the crimping pins. The cheapest, easiest, and in my opinion best way is to get some 22 gauge solid wire for breadboarding, solder that to the wire on the gameboy extension (put heat shrink on the jointj). The solder joint will be good and strong and you can just strip the end of the 22 solid wire and push it in the breadboard.
 
Partly why I have skipped it - but a custom cable on a small device can make a big difference. They should make an 'O' ring crimp end so you can solder it on at 90°. Displays with pre-soldered pins are 'so tall' - it would be nice to make a secure connection and clip the pin. I suppose you could clip the crimp pin end off and take the wire out in a loop and back under before crimping - then solder and add heat shrink - that sounds nicely tedious.
 
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