What are those 'sockets' or 'plugs' for the electronics called, and where can I buy them? (Image)

I need more of the little sockets and plugs shown in the image below, but I am having a lot of difficulty locating these things. They didn't have them at radioshack and they didnt have them at my local hardware store. Anywhere online I could buy a bunch of them?

Dupont Connectors

You can check at a local hobby store, i was surprised while looking for some metric screws, they had those connectors on the shelf.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2014 11:58AM by cat.farmer.

Quote
ddseeker
Dupont Connectors

Thank you!

Why exactly are these so hard to find. Seems so essential for anybody tinkering with electronics, you'd think Radioshack would at least have something like it lying around

They are 1x2 and 1x4 housings, 0.1" contact spacing, often made by Molex. If you have a store that sells electronic enthusiast/ hobbyist supplies locally, I'm sure they will have them. If not, you can buy them from many places online. Here's a link for Newark/Farnell:

[www.newark.com]
[www.newark.com]
[www.newark.com]

You're best to build an order and submit it for a quote, rather than just ordering online. They will give you better pricing and realistic shipping rates.

Hansen Hobbies sells them online as well, but the quality is not as nice as the original Molex connectors and the shipping is pretty expensive.

Connector page - [www.pololu.com]

Connector Housings - [www.pololu.com]

Female Crimp Pins - [www.pololu.com]

Male Crimp Pins - [www.pololu.com]

Crimper - [www.radioshack.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2014 01:36PM by tjb1.

These are cheap and ok for some applications: [dx.com]

Pololu is the best place I've been able to get small batches. Ships quick either First Class Package or Priority and the shipping is very reasonable. I get them in bulk from Digikey. You can use pliers to crimp but the integrity can be questionable. I got one of the crimpers from Pololu and it works well but not as good as the high dollar name brand tools. It's good enough for low volume hobby work though.

Best bet (at least it works well for me) is crimp first, then solder. Very carefully, of course.

You can also buy pre-crimped wires from pololu in a variety of colors and lengths and in M/M, F/F and M/F configurations. This is what I do and I just assemble the cable configurations I need.