[sdiy] 0.100 pin header reliability.

[Stewart Pye]

Hi Dave,

FWIW I'm an electronics technician. Here's my experiences...
I've generally only seen the contacts fail if the equipment is in hash 
corrosive environments.
However I have seen many failures where the wire was only crimped to the 
pin (I'm talking about the female housing now). After time it seems that 
the wire oxidises and the connection between the wire and pin becomes 
bad. I always solder the wire to the pin and have never had a problem 
with any connections I've done.

I find the easiest way to do this is to leave the pins on the strip, 
then just bend the sides of the pin in a bit so it will fit into the 
shell easily later, tin both the pin and the stripped wire, then solder 
them together. Once this is done you can squash the back end of the pin 
over the insulation of the wire. The guys I work with prefer to separate 
the pins and crimp them using the appropriate tool and then solder them. 
Maybe they can do it that way as fast as I do it my way but, but I'm 
damn sure I can't!

I would never use the insulation displacement type female connector that 
suits these headers as I've seen too many failures.


Cheers,
Stew.


Dave Kendall wrote:
> Hi All.
>
> Do any of you have an opinion on the long-term reliability of 0.100 
> connectors like these;
> http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Connectors-Multipole/PCB-Interconnect/Straight-pin-header/28953 
>
>
> They make assembly much easier and neater (at added cost), but how 
> good are they in the long term? I'm not so bothered about the number 
> of reliable make/break cycles, just whether they generally hold good 
> once installed, and whether vibration from handling or road use causes 
> any common problems. I once had an Ensoniq EPS that had known issues 
> with a power multipin corroding and causing failures years ago (when 
> ensoniq actually *had* a service centre in Putney, London, UK)
>
> Anybody got any real-world advice?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> cheers,
> Dave
>
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