Does anyone make a prewired connector for a 8 pin DPDT mini relay? I have not been able to find one on internet.
Earlier I was struggeling to find a workable solution to power a bi-color LED for a control board when using Kato turnouts and a Digitrax DS64 controller since neither offers a ready way to power a LED for my control panel. I finally found a way to do it with a latching relay that is wired in parallel to the turnout and then the relay can power my bi-color LED to show turnout position. However, soldering wire to the 8 pins of each relays for each of my 50 turnouts will consume time I would prefer to spend elsewhere. A good solution would be to find a wired connector that I could plug the relay into with a wire for each pin to work with.
Hoping that someone more familiar with electronic widgits than I am can let me know where to find such a connector.
Digi-Key P/N 399-11030-5-ND (Kemet P/N EC2-12SNU) purchased from Digi-Key. Searched Digi-Key and internet for wired connector with no luck. Wired connectors exist for big relays likes used in autos but I have not found anything for the mini relays like used on PCB’s. Right now I expect to mount a bunch of them on a PCB and fire up my soldering iron.
If they are really tiny relays they may be DIP size and fit a normal DIP socket. However, I’ve never seen them with wires already attached. There are the wire wrap type with have extra long pins to solder to. Back in the day, Radio Shack used to seel a setof 2 pc boards that had a 14 or 16 pin DIP outline int he middle to solder a chip to, and then around the edge of the board, large solder pads attached to each of the pins. If these are DIP relays, boards like this may still be out there somewhere.
I use 8 pin mini relays sold by allelectronics for signal and switch controls. I also use those PC boards from Radio Shack. But I found that the relays will not stay in a 16 pin IC socket, so I have to solder the relays onto the PC boards.
if you look at the specks on this relay, they are meant to be used on a PC board with holes drilled in the board Or a surface mount. The number you stated is for through the hole type on a PC board.
The EC2-12SNU will plug into a standard dip IC socket. You can use either two six pin sockets or a 14 pin and block pins 7 & 8. Again the round pin sockets are superior to square pin or flat type connectors.
I understand the variances in the type of sockets but none meet my desire for a wired connector. Using them to attach a mini relay to a PCB still leaves me with the need to solder the socket to the PCB. Earlier I considered using several 2 pin or 3 pin power jumper cables typically used on PCB and edge connectors but I found that the pin spacing was all wrong plus the connectors were designed for a larger pin than used on the relay. Another dead end. Since the Digitrax DS64 supports 4 turnouts each, I will default to my original plan to use a small PCB that will hold 4 mini relays so I will have a PCB for each DS64. Probably will use the small 2 piece board from Radio Shack since each piece will hold 4 relays. I expect to insert wire tips from same side as the relay, then bend wire tips to mate with relay tips then apply solder to fix everything to the PCB. I know this will work but will take some time. Thanks to all for your help. Makes me feel better about not finding a wired connector since the experts here confirm that no such animal exists.
It shouldn’t take any more time to wire in the relay socket direct than if the socket had prewired pigtailed leads. Wiring direct should be neater than prewired sockets too.
I glue the 16 pin dip sockets and the LED indicators to my mini toggles to prevent a spaghetti bowl in my control panel. Only the LED/Relay power (two wires) and three wires to the switch machine.
I drill a ⅛” hole above the ¼” toggle switch hole for the 3mm bicolor LED.
I solder an Arduino type male connector direct to the Toggle contacts so that the wires going to the turnout are easily reversed.
Mel - I like your solution for your application - very neat. I am not using a toggle switch but I am using a momentatry push button in its place. The button allows me to manually trigger the DS64 to throw a switch in lieu of using a DCC command. In lieu of glueing the relay to the back of the toggle, I think I can velcro it to the back of my control panel. Appears this approach will allow me to limit the wiring to the control panel to a 4 wire bundle per turnout. A single Cat 5 cable with 8 wires could then support 2 turnouts and minimze the spaghetti bowl at my control panel
My middle name is Sloppy, I have to really work at it to keep it from looking like a Spaghetti bowl. I try to make everything as neat and easy to maintain as I can. A year ago it took me almost two months to clean up my control panel. I have to do that about every five years or so.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
