3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

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paladin25
 
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3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

Post by paladin25 »

I purchased a bunch of the Neopixels a few months back that are going on Show Choir costumes. The high school students wearing them will be singing and fdancing while their costumes are doing really cool stuff. I am trying to determine a good connector to make easy connection with. The LED's need to be removable from the costume because of the sweaty boys wearing them, so I need a quality connector that will allow us to easily connect and detach connections.

On the Adafruit site, there is a 3 pin JST SM plug & receptacle. These look like the type of connector I want, but the tail is only 6 inches...I will need them to be longer. Does any one have a source for these connectors, or can you suggest something else? I will need cable lengths of 16", 34" and others. Even if there is a crimping tool I need to buy, it might make sense as I have 52 costumes with 10 connections on each costume...it is going to be a lot to do.

Thank you for your help.

Joe

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: 3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

Post by michaelmeissner »

There are many different ways of connecting up neopixels.

One that I've thought of, but so far I haven't done is to use 3.5mm audio connectors. Solder this to the perma-proto (or whatever) that you have the processor on: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1699.

Then use this on the neopixel to allow it to connect to the processor: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1800.

You would need to get some hookup wire to connect to the neopixels. Because of the dancing and moving, I suspect stranded wire would be better in this case than solid wire.

If you didn't want to solder all of those wires to the plugs, you could get the 32" right angle pig-tail connection to 3.5mm: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1700. I would likely use the black wire (sleeve) as ground, white wire (middle) as data, and red wire as power (tip).

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bcochran1
 
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Re: 3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

Post by bcochran1 »

This post will be a big help to me because I want and need to understand how to use stereo plugs. And by now, I'm floating in Neopixels. Addiction, addiction.

Thanks, Michael!

Bob

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davidl13
 
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Re: 3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

Post by davidl13 »

Using TRS plugs can be extremely dangerous to the first pixel in the strand if it's either plugged or unplugged while power is applied. The risk is applying VDD to the first pixel's DIN can easily blow it, taking down the entire strand. Adding to the fact that the ground can be extremely intermittent during insertion/extraction. Risky.

Also, no TS, TRS, or TRRS plugs/sockets I've seen have an overly impressive current rating. Attempting to power a large, power-hungry strand might cause them to get uncomfortably warm. Also risky.

I thought seriously about using TRS connectors for the PICsellator: https://learn.adafruit.com/the-picsellator

...but opted for the the DE9's precisely because of their per-pin current handling and the additional insertion force makes it very unlikely the connectors will separate unintentionally with movement.

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hiduino
 
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Re: 3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

Post by hiduino »

I've used TRS plugs for some NeoPixel Rings. I would never plug/unplug with live power so that should not be an issue. And for small pixel count projects the current rating should be fine.

I used some Trinkets with the smalls tin can and battery powered for a bunch of wearables projects.
Tinket_Altoids_smalls.jpg
Tinket_Altoids_smalls.jpg (444.43 KiB) Viewed 340 times

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paladin25
 
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Re: 3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

Post by paladin25 »

As a sound guy at heart, I have soldered more TRS than I could count. But I would not consider them here because it is not a locking connector. Some of the singer/dancers will have 26 seconds to put on their costumes. The connections need to be performer proof.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I really hope someone can suggest a good rectangular locking connector that can crimp or solder to custom lengths.

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: 3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

Post by michaelmeissner »

Ok, next up is locking connectors. One system is the system that dipmicro sells. It consists of two parts, the female end is meant to be soldered into a proto-board on one eand, and the locking male part has wires:
With priority shipping it would be under $20 for shipment to the US for 100 m/f connectors, and 300 crimping pins. I've crimped with normal needle nose pliers, but you probably want to get a good crimping setup. Adafruit sells 3 different crimping pliers.

Alternatively, consider RJ-11 (US telephone) or RJ-45 (ethernet) terminals you can buy at home improvement stores.

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bcochran1
 
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Re: 3 Pin Connectors with tails for Neopixels

Post by bcochran1 »


@ michaelmeissner thank you for the great ideas. I went out and got myself a stereo plug and jack. I'm going to try soldering some category 6 Ethernet cable to the parts -- just 3 wires out of the 8 available, of course. The twisting in the wires should help the signals.

@ hiduino, your Altoids project with the Trinket is beautiful. One of my dreams is to make a board and case as nice as yours.

Bob

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