I'm looking for something to connect 4 wires to 4 other wires in such a way that they can be plugged in and unplugged. I'm really only needing to connect my nerdkit project's enclosure to my PC's USB/Serial cable and Radio Shack's choices left a lot to be desired. I've looked at digikey and a few other sites and I'm absolutely overwhelmed by choices. I have no idea what to choose. Any advice?

Hi FWSquatch,

Something I've done in the past is to use RJ11 connectors, like analog phones use (I imagine that in a few years our younger customers won't know what these are!!!), because you can then use ordinary phone cables to connect things up. (You can also go up to ethernet-style RJ45 if you need 8 conductors.) They even have these jacks at RadioShack if you need them in a hurry, which has screw terminals inside.

Pros:

• easily available and fairly inexpensive
• uses standard, inexpensive cables available in lots of different lengths
• latching connector

Cons:

• can't carry a lot of current
• unshielded and not necessarily twisted pairs -- may be susceptible to electrical noise and crosstalk over long runs
• may not be super-elegant or compact to put one of these jacks inside your enclosure

Mike

i have used these before, and for basic data carrying like TLL and sort, it should work fine for quick connection. I'm planning on possibly developing a personal, dev kit for my own use, and will be using this for the uart connection and a RJ45 for the ISP programmer.