The High Cost Of Doing Business.....

[jrfrond]

A certain manufacturer we are authorized for wants us to upgrade the IDC's (Insulation Displacement Connectors) in their digital consoles (under warranty) with crimp-style Molex Spox high-pressure connectors. Great idea, I say. I've been seeing more and more of these 4-sided spring connectors, which unlike standard Molex .156" connectors, contact the terminal on four sides for better reliability and increased current handling capability, eliminating the melted connector shells we've probably all seen.

So, on their mod sheet, they list the head shells and terminals we need. What they DIDN'T tell us is that we need a DIFFERENT (pricey) Molex crimp tool that is solely for these terminals. We already have a .156" crimp tool (also pricey), but now we must go ahead and bite the bullet. Well, actually we already bit the bullet and purchased the new tool from the one available source, and $332 later, we can commence the tedious work of replacing the connectors. And there is no way to do it without the tooling.

Sometimes you need to purchase the right tools for the job, and just suck it up. We MIGHT be able to get the manufacturer to subsidize part of the cost, but well, that's a BIG maybe.

It never ends!!!

Back to our regularly-scheduled rants.....

[J M Fahey]

Well, I think that since that is NOT a "regular" general purpose tool, yet THEY are forcing you to use it for their exclusive benefit, they should at least:
a) Buy a bunch of them OEM/wholesale , obviously at about half retail price or less, and pass them on to you or
b) THEY buy them at whatever price the manufacturer asks (it's their party after all) and lend/lease/rent them for a nominal cost to selected few service shops such as yours or
c) They provide freely as many pre-mounted wiring harnesses as needed to repair their equipment .
Proprietary crimping equipment is usually sold at 600% its real cost, or so it seems.
Hope the added business provides the U$S 3320 profit you need to cover that otherwise unnecessary expense, in less than,say, 2 years, time in which it may become obsolete by some another gadget.
Just my $332. (the traditional two cents become ridiculous in this case)

[jrfrond]

Well, I think that since that is NOT a "regular" general purpose tool, yet THEY are forcing you to use it for their exclusive benefit, they should at least:
a) Buy a bunch of them OEM/wholesale , obviously at about half retail price or less, and pass them on to you or
b) THEY buy them at whatever price the manufacturer asks (it's their party after all) and lend/lease/rent them for a nominal cost to selected few service shops such as yours or
c) They provide freely as many pre-mounted wiring harnesses as needed to repair their equipment .
Proprietary crimping equipment is usually sold at 600% its real cost, or so it seems.
Hope the added business provides the U$S 3320 profit you need to cover that otherwise unnecessary expense, in less than,say, 2 years, time in which it may become obsolete by some another gadget.
Just my $332. (the traditional two cents become ridiculous in this case)

1) Not gonna happen

2) Not gonna happen

3) Not gonna happen

Great ideas though.

We will use this for other repairs as well. As I said, we've seen these connectors more and more. I just wasn't planning on the purchase so soon.

[J M Fahey]

Unfortunately, I must agree on 1), 2) and 3).
Oh well !!!!
Even worse, I'm sure Chinese generic manufacturers (just as an example) will use an unlicensed copy of that crimper for which they'll pay, say, $60 at most.
PS: besides that, do you have some link for those connectors?
Sound interesting.
Although I'll wait for the Chinese copy to be available.

[Enzo]

Well, it won;'t maybe get you through the warranty thing here, but for the standard .156 Molex (KK-156 series), which bears on one side of the male post only, you can use the KK-156 "trifurcon" pins. The trifurcons grip three sides of the male post. They fit in the same housings, in fact you can mix and match them when a connector carries both high and low currents. And they crimp on with the same tool the old single sided pins crimp with. We switched to them in pinball machines 30 years ago. Between huge strings of 6v bulbs, solenoid power, and other things, there is a lot of high current in a pinball machine. But it stops the burning 156 connector thing right away. I use them in amps in places I might otherwise hardwire.

Trifurcon pin Mouser stock 538-08-50-0165


REgular pin Mouser stock 538-08-50-0106


KK156 housing they fit, Mouser stock 538-09-50-3021


If you are just looking for a higher current alternative connector pin for the standard Molex 156 connectors we see everywhere, these trifurcons do not cost any more than regular pins - 6 cents each.

One caveat is they increase the mating force. So I don;t usually replace all pins with them, just the opnes that carry current. Too many of them increases the connector grip, making it harder to pull off.

[jrfrond]

Yeah Doug, we have those as well. The problem here is that the Spox connectors were spec'ed by the manufacturer, who you probably service also. Now of course, we probably could have used Trifurcon instead (and yes, they do use the same crimp tool as the standard KK pins), but in case one of these mixers ever made it back to you-know-who, I didn't want any repercussions. And yes, I had to purchase the matching headshells as well, when I have bins full of the others. Unfortunately, the crimp tool was the same price no matter where I checked distributor stock off the Molex website. Arrgghhh!!!

[g1]

Is that a flat rate on the labour part of the warranty claim? Or could you have the extra-meticulous guy do the first one and go from there?
Might just have to invent some kind of new magical mojo created by electrons travelling through four dimesional rather than one dimensional connectors and start doing a lot of conversions.

[Ronsonic]

c) They provide freely as many pre-mounted wiring harnesses as needed to repair their equipment .

You mean like that maker of mixers and amps that seemingly never got a ribbon cable to work right. They got up to Rev G when they just gave up on relabeling the cables and just shipped the next few pathetic attempts under the Rev G marking.

Haven't seen any lately so maybe they finally got sorted.

[jrfrond]

You mean like that maker of mixers and amps that seemingly never got a ribbon cable to work right. They got up to Rev G when they just gave up on relabeling the cables and just shipped the next few pathetic attempts under the Rev G marking.

Haven't seen any lately so maybe they finally got sorted.

Bingo dude! Same company.

[Enzo]

John, I wasn't suggesting you cheat on the warranty procedures. I was really offering the trifurcons to pique JM's interest. And just in general, it is an option for someone with an occasional ribbon contact problem. JM seemed interested in your connectors.

[J M Fahey]

Hi Enzo and JRFrond.
In fact I *am* interested in reliable connectors.
Yet I have mixed feelings about them.
On one side, they are necessary; on the other, they are unreliable.
I did trust the old Molex type so favored by Peavey, with their octal tube base like round pins and cylindric female contacts, but single side, low pressure contacts as regular .156 ones can't be trusted.
Even those little .1" are conceptually better, because they can be had with 2 opposite sides "grippers".
Those tri-something ones look better, I will ask for them at my local Arrow branch, they have or can get the full line of AMP products, they should have something similar.
Thanks again.

[jrfrond]

John, I wasn't suggesting you cheat on the warranty procedures. I was really offering the trifurcons to pique JM's interest. And just in general, it is an option for someone with an occasional ribbon contact problem. JM seemed interested in your connectors.

I know Doug. It's just that I DID think about it, y'know? And it probably would have worked fine.

High-pressure connectors are nothing new. Ensoniq used to like them in their power supply harnesses years ago. I cannot tell you how many 02R's I retrofitted with them after the 4-pin transformer secondaries connector toasted. At first I used gold-plated pins and headers to stave-off oxidation, which is the real killer with connectors that pass a sizable amount of current. Then I purchased the Trifurcon pins. This is our first foray into Spox connectors, but when I see repeated problem areas, I always look to upgrade, whether it's poor connectors, underrated components, etc.

In general, as we all know, solderless connections have been a real hassle for many years in all forms of electronic gear. Reseating and/or cleaning connectors is a repair function we perform multiple times a day in the shop. In my own gear, I will sometimes lop of the connectors and hardwire them. Nothing beats a soldered connection!