JST-SM connectors, m/c wire and Farnell

[T i m]

Hi All,

I'm after a small selection of JST-SM connectors. They look like this:

often found as interconnects inside all sorts of low power electrical kit.

Wire to wire, locking, polarised, small and in various number of 'ways' (I would be interested in 2 > 6 ways).

They also come in black and white (solid colours, not striped). ;-)

So, I need a few of each size for myself (electric bike in this instance and that already uses them) and it looks like Farnell do some:

before I create an account and order some I think I remember someone saying they sometimes do 'specials' on the postage (assuming order value below that for free postage) and / or is there anyone else who stocks these things who may be better for small orders please?

On similar lines I need a couple of meters of (min) 5 core, thin (~1-3A?) stranded, (ideally) black sheathed cable (it needs to run through the eyelets of a cycle downtube so be about the size of a std brake cable outer). It could come from a supplier in a cut length or be a cheap made-up lead where I could cut the ends off etc (a USB cable or somesuch)?

Ideas please?

Cheers, T i m (Nth London)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Alarm cable - comes in 4, 6, 8 cores etc and cheap because it's common. It's rather like telephone cable but stranded rather than solid core.

might have to search to find it in black, though.

If you only want a couple of metres of white, send me a SAE and I'll give you some.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just a point, but these sort of connectors are best crimped, and the tool needed to do this usually ain't cheap.

[T i m]

Cheers.

You are kind (thanks again).

I have just stumbled on a black Cat5 patch cable. I might nip and end off and confirm that it is stranded and if so it should do, at least to get us going for now.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Was it you who mentioned the Farnell happy hour (or whatever it was) when they did free postage or no minimum order etc?

[T i m]

So I saw, £300+ or summat! For this purpose I think I should be ok with a pliers crimp to nip the stuff in place then a quick solder. The worst that could happen is the power assist motor stops assisting. ;-)

I've been fitting 'crimp' connectors that way for years and not one of them has failed yet . ;-)

The only ones I haven't tried to use without the proper tools are those that shrink rather than grip .. like the sleeves on co-ax connectors ... and RJ11/45 plugs etc.

Cheers, T i m

[Dave Plowman (News)]

All these places are doing it at some time. The recession bites...

[T i m]

So it's not a set / regular time then (and sorta my question)?

It looks like £5.95 pnp on top of my £10 order (plus VAT) then. ;-(

Oh well ..

Cheers, T i m

[Peter Parry]

I've got a couple of drums of (I think) 6 core stranded you are welcome to a length of that if you like. I'll check tomorrow what the exact spec is.

[T i m]

Cheers Peter.

I've just measured the guides on the down tube and it looks like the ID is ~6mm.

So 1.5m in black would be ideal (and that allows a bit of slack). ;-)

Cheers,

T i m

[geoff]

In message , T i m writes

I have an account

[T i m]

Hmmm, ;-)

Do account holders generally pay the same for the actual items do you know?

There has been a slight update in that someone else might be interested in getting some connectors so we could end up to the free postage threshold anyway.

With all your connections in your game Geoff, any other places likely to stock such things (in black especially)?

Thanks and I may be back. ;-)

T i m

[geoff]

Yes AFAIK, I certainly pay catalogue prices

I have bought these connectors in the past and I bought them from Farnell - time was more precious than a couple of quid potentially saved at the time

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you've registered with them, or RS, CPC, Rapid, etc, as you usually have to to buy from them and not stopped them sending you emails of offers, they'll tell you when a post free offer comes up. CPC is worth getting those daily emails from if you don't mind that sort of thing.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Any discount is usually on volume of business. Or buying a big quantity of one item.

You'd probably get it in black easily - provided you pay for a full drum. Farnell, etc, don't usually sell cut lengths. Maplin may have what you want by the metre.

[Bob Eager]

I did a Farnell order quite recently; no min order and no shipping charge for about 15 quid worth of parts.

CPC seem to be doing the 'free shipping on orders over £20' every weekend now.

[geoff]

Scraped in there then - yesterdays order was just shy of £400, and not a single xmas item ordered either

[T i m]

No, ok as long as there aren't too frequent etc. I get the Aldi / Lidl ones.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Ok, we might be ok then. It's not a real biggy but it's just a bit annoying spending more on pnp then product. ;-(

I don't think CPC did what I was after but I'll look again (still good to know about the weekend thing and maybe what I was thinking was a Farnell deal. I thought I'd seen something somewhere! ).

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Ok.

Sorry Dave, talking about the connectors here (Farnell only do them in white and the ones on the bike are black).

Good point about Maplin for the cable though (the last cable I bought from there was that very heavy duty flex the car boys use for ICE power. I use a bit as an extension lead for an electric outboard!). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Bob Eager]

With CPC, follow the instructions on the home page (put WEBFREE in the special instructions box). Easy to forget...!