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I want to connect a Raspberry Pi to an 8-relay board, such as this one. enter image description here

Together with ground and power this amounts to ten wires. One option to connect the two is by using female to female jumper cables, such as these.

enter image description here

However, this will result in a messy and delicate connection. For example, if one of the wires is accidentally pulled, there's the risk of reinserting it to a wrong pin. What's the professional way to connect the two boards with a cable?

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  • What distances? Small enclosure or control cabinet? For control cabinets I prefer screw terminals or ideally ferule terminal blocks for small enclosures properly terminated cables are good as per accepted answer
    – crasic
    Commented Mar 11, 2019 at 5:54

1 Answer 1

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The black housings are available for more than just one contact, as one row or two row version. The contacts are crimped to the wires , which means you either have a crimp tool or somehow solder it. Ideally, you can use your cable, remove contacts from the housing, and just push them into the bigger housing.

enter image description here

Edit (by Milliways) To add to the answer I have a selection of housings I purchased on eBay. I use these with a crimping tool (their original purpose) or on existing jumper cables. enter image description here

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    Nice answer, might I add that you can also re-arrange the pin orders on one side to suit or omit unnecessary lines. Also heatshrink tubing is great for keeping loose bundles neat and adding a little strain relief.
    – Roger Jones
    Commented Mar 9, 2019 at 18:52
  • This looks like a perfect solution, thanks! @RogerJones heatshrink tubing is another nice touch. Would you apply it end-to-end, near each connectors, or somehow else?
    – Diomidis Spinellis
    Commented Mar 10, 2019 at 11:47
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    @DiomidisSpinellis depends on the length and how often the loom is going to be moved. For short runs, say < 10cm, I'd shrink the whole lot. For longer runs I'd shrink the connectors plusabout 2cm of cable on each end and then have short bits of heatshink every 5cm or so along the length. If the "bundle" hasn't been split up into individual strands then you'd not need so much along the length.
    – Roger Jones
    Commented Mar 10, 2019 at 16:03
  • Heating the heatshrink tubing melted and deformed the connector housing. I ended up using a cable sleeve instead.
    – Diomidis Spinellis
    Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 9:27

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