Board of education - edge connector for X1

PRPROG01

I have a Board of education that will like to used as a permanent board for a project. Where do I find a suitable connector for the X1 connector strip?

This X1 provide all the in/out plus voltage/ground lines that I used in my project.

Thanks,
PRPROG

Mike Green

X1 is a standard 10 x 2 pin socket on 0.1" centers (pin spacing). Any matching plug (header) should work. You can get these with a cable attached with or without another plug on the other end or something you can solder to a board on the other end. Have a look in Mouser's, Digikey's or Jameco's on-line catalog for these. Here are some examples from Jameco that you'd solder to a small board with wires running to the pins and would plug into X1. Look at the double row straight or right-angle 10 position double row headers.

CaptainJohn

I use the Board of Education and the 27113 Digital I/O board and wanted to "Plug" them together. After researching a large number of supplier sites I finally found a male header, ribbon cable and a female connector. The male connector was the hard part to find as 8 of the 9 supply houses I searched do not stock this part.

The 20 pin male connector part number is 95M8032 (on sale 1.25), the 20 pin female connector part number is 87F194 (5.44) and 28AWG 20 conductor flat cable part number is 98K8799 and is sold by the yard (3.82). all items are available from www.newark.com.

The double row headder mentioned by Mike Green can be used on your permanent board and the female connector will plug right in. The ribbon cable is multicolor so it should help to avoid a turnover on the connector ends. Putting the connector on the ribbon cable requires a little care as you can damage the plastic when you squeeze the connector onto the cable. I have had good luck when using a small 3" vice with smooth jaws, or you can buy the 300 dollar tool to do the same job.

CaptainJohn

OOPS I found an error in my post

" the 20 pin female connector part number is 87F194 (5.44)" is an error that part number is the same header as the 95M8032. It is just a different manufacturer

The correct part number for the female connector is 50H7127 ($0.46) and is in stock.

I recieved my order from Newark yesterday and discovered my error. There is an additional issue with the male connector that plugs into the x1 connector. The male header has plastic ears that can be used to screw the connector to a board or panel. These ears must be clipped as they hit the reset button on one side and the heat sink on the other. The second issue is the x1 connector is 1" long while the header has an opening that is 1-3/16" wide. So if you are not careful you can start to plug the connector into x1 off center and bend the pins. I solved the problem by saving two of the ears I just clipped off and after triming them to the right length I super glued them on each end and now the header exactly fits x1

CaptainJohn

The uncut connector is on the left and the finished connector and ribbon cable on right. Two cutoff tabs are shown in the lower left

The right tab has been glued in place and the second is being placed on the left end and ready for glue

Finished cable connected to X1

CaptainJohn

Ouch! One more problem discovered.
The correct female connector arrived and after building the rest of the cable I mapped the pins so I could start working with the I/O Board.


After making and testing the cable, I discovered the connectors are designed to mate with one another and the pins map to one another when used in this manner. BUT used as a cable between two boards the connections are turned over. This is not a problem for VSS as they are on each side of the connection. It is also not a problem for the Inputs and Outputs as you can map the pins to meet the needs of the I/O Board. The problem is the Power connections are reversed by the cable connectors.


This map shows the pin map and the power problem.

One possible solution is pulling the cable apart and swapping the two power wires and re-assembling the connector. I will let you know how this solution turned out.