Yes, you can still get "QuickConnect" connectors for connecting bare wires to the mains. Quite expensive though, thirty or forty pounds. I'm after something like that but with no need for the clever safety and isolation functions - just the connectors.
Exactly! That's what I'm trying to avoid, trying to push a few strands of wire into a hole on a terminal post that I can't see! :-)
I'm coming to the conclusion that this may be the best (but far from perfect) solution. My experience of many of these connectors is that it's often difficult to get the wires into the right place. However it may well be easier with them in full view on a panel as opposed to round the back of a bit of HiFi equipment.
If your power supply has 4mm sockets, link a 4mm plug and a crocodile clip back-to-back with a length of studding or stiff wire. Insulated croc clips will help avoid short circuits.
Now that's a possible way to do it, I can skip the 4mm plug bit and just have leads coming from the PSU with croc clips on them. I had considered just having 'loose' Wago lever connectors too. It's unconventional but either of these would work I think. The loose Wago connectors are quite good because the connections are well shrouded, rather better than insulated croc clips.
In message , snipped-for-privacy@gowanhill.com writes
I was a little reluctant to suggest croc clips lying around, but that is exactly what I do. My use is repairing/testing old toy trains, but I always have a power supply nearby, with a couple of fly leads attached, terminating in colour coded croc clips.
The screw terminal posts on my (ancient) electronics power supplies can be used three ways.
1) push wire through hole in stud, screw up the plastic "nut"
2) wrap wire around stud, screw up the nut. (Half a turn will usually do for a temporary fixing).
3) banana plug into centre of stud
You seem to be ruling out option 1 but what's wrong with option 2? I can't immediately spot this sort of terminal post on the web, but surely they must still be around?
but with my suggestion they're not 'lying around' - they're fairly firmly attached to the front panel of the power supply and not able to drape on things
Yes, agreed. I should have said I was reluctant to suggest *my method* of using croc clips. I use a 0-30v 6 amp bench power supply, and fly leads are useful. I actually have quite a few ready made up, with various combinations of colour coding and banana plug as well as croc clip terminations.
Don't know if it's still available, but I've some connector block that's just sprung, no screws. It's about the 20A size and the terminals take a fair bit of force to operate. If a smaller version is available it might do.
I have some of them lying around somewhere, I'll have a play. They would make a good alternative to croc clips, somewhat safer I think. Like the 222 though they aren't easy to mount on anything solid though.
Yes, I think these may be the best possibility, though see my comments somewhere up the thread.
Banana plugs of the sort linked, aimed at the audio enthusiast, have a larg e hole in them to accomodate oversized speaker cable typically , side entry with the collar screwing down by finger, tool free , to tighten.
These plug into your standard 4mm binding post.
At back of my bench have a variable PSU with 4 mm sockets, it lives with Ma plin Shark brand gold plated 4mm plugs in its sockets, because it turns the sockets into easy entry screw terminals.
Also along back of bench have a piece of ply with 3 pairs of 4mm posts for
5, 12 and 24 V powered by a concealed selection of old wall warts plugged i nto a 4 way.
I've just looked at the wikipedia article. That takes me back just over half a century! My experience of these connectors involved their use on plastic component holders for things like an OA91 diode, an OC45 and OC72 transistors and a 3v torch battery holder (C cells) and a variable permeable tuning coil (MW & LW) along with a 270pF capacitor (on its own component holder) and the odd resistor plus a very simple "morse key".
The plastic component holders had slightly tapered lugs designed to plug into pegboard with 'hookup' templates (about A4 or slightly larger in size) for each of the "Seven Electronics Projects" in the kit. Each template included its own "Schematic" (circuit diagram to us Brits).
I learnt quite a lot of my basic electronics knowledge from that particular "Christmas Present" but, oddly, not the name of those connectors (I didn't even know they *had* a name). :-)
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.