10 conductor ribbon cables for Propeller Proto USB board?

David Betz · 2012-08-16 09:24

I've finally gotten around to finding time to play with one of the Propeller Proto USB boards that I bought ages ago and notice that the connections to the Propeller pins are in groups of 8 with VSS and VDD lines for each group. It seems to me that it would be nice to be able to solder 10 pin male headers to the proto board and use ribbon cables to connect them to off-board parts. Does anyone make 10 conductor female-to-female cables that would be appropriate for this?

Circuitsoft · 2012-08-16 09:49

Easiest would probably be to use a 20-pin (2x10) JTAG cable. DigiKey sells them, and you can easily buy the parts for them too.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/A3BBB-2006M/A3BBB-2006M-ND/1982449

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/1700%2F20%20100SF/MC20F-100-ND/145537
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/AWP20-7240-T-R/HKC20H-ND/924343

David Betz · 2012-08-16 09:55

Circuitsoft wrote: »

Easiest would probably be to use a 20-pin (2x10) JTAG cable. DigiKey sells them, and you can easily buy the parts for them too.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/A3BBB-2006M/A3BBB-2006M-ND/1982449

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/1700%2F20%20100SF/MC20F-100-ND/145537
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/AWP20-7240-T-R/HKC20H-ND/924343

Thanks! I'll probably go with the pre-made cables since I seem to always mess them up when I try to make them myself. :-(

Circuitsoft · 2012-08-16 10:41

What I do to make cables is I will begin to put the IDC connector together, just lining up the pins. I'll put it in a vice, just tight enough to hold it, then insert the ribbon cable into the side. Once it's sitting nicely in the connector, I close the vice and it comes out nicely. I've never had trouble with this procedure. Have you?

David Betz · 2012-08-16 10:44

Circuitsoft wrote: »

What I do to make cables is I will begin to put the IDC connector together, just lining up the pins. I'll put it in a vice, just tight enough to hold it, then insert the ribbon cable into the side. Once it's sitting nicely in the connector, I close the vice and it comes out nicely. I've never had trouble with this procedure. Have you?

To be honest, it has been a long time since I've tried to make my own cables and I think at the time I was trying to make ethernet cables. Maybe I'd have better luck with these. I guess I should try it! :-)

Duane Degn · 2012-08-16 10:45

SparkFun sells ready made cables, ribon cable and IDC parts.

It's not very hard to add the IDC connectors to 10 wire ribon cable. I haven't been able to use their "breadboard friendly" connectors without having them break.

cavelamb · 2012-08-16 14:37

I decided not to use cables with the Proto board. The layout is a bit - uhm - well, It is.
At least compared to the platforms, Quickstart, etc,

So for the Proto board I make little plug-in modules with angle pin headers and perf board.
that worked out really well.

Tubular · 2012-08-16 15:50

There is this,
https://www.adafruit.com/products/266

pity they don't have them in blocks of 10, joined single-inline, but I guess this is an ultra flexible approach

kwinn · 2012-08-16 18:17

I surrounded the prop chip on the protoboard I use for prototyping with 4 2x8 pin headers (see attachment) and use 16 conductor ribbon cables to power and connect I/O pins to peripheral boards. Most of the ribbon cables have a 2x8 female connector on the prop end and whatever pinout I need on the other end. Quite a few of the connectors and cables were salvaged from scrapped PC's. Making ribbon cables with IDC connectors can be done with a vise or a pair of channel lock pliers. This has worked extremely well for me.

10 conductor ribbon cables for Propeller Proto USB board?

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