My toolbox is coming up nicely, but I have more wires in this thing than space. To make cable management better, I used traditional 4-pin connectors. If you ever tried to crimp these and reconnect it repeatedly, you know how delicate these things can be. Is there a better 4-pin connector or we are all doomed?
Searching for a better 4-pin connector
Drone and RC lovers have their XT series, which is brilliant for tight, high current connections between cables. It’s great until space is at a premium and you have more than 2-3 cables to link!
Frustrated with rather miserable search results on AliExpress and similar pages I kept redoing my broken connections. I was ready to give up on the idea when I come up with an idea!
How about a standard we all trying to phase out now with USB-C. Turns out that microUSB is available as a selection of breakout boards, and you can make a fancy connector out of it, or simply use an existing cable!
After a couple of searches I found 2 that are perfect:
These make much better 4-pin connectors! In fact, some of them can let you use up to 6 wires! The connection is small, easy to replug, can withstand a fair share of moving about.
Don’t worry, these are not that hard to solder. You will need a small soldering tip (I’m using an excellent TS80 portable iron with TS-B02 tip) and modified 2nd cheapest soldering stand I could find on the internet! Add a couple of heat-shrink sleeves or hot glue to secure the connections and you will have a much better way of connecting wires.
Conclusion
What do you think guys? I honestly doubt there are people out there that enjoy using JST connectors. I rather spend a little longer with a soldering tool than a crimper and ends that end up not connecting properly. If you have more interesting connectors you can list it in this Reddit thread.
