Dupont connector wires typical proportion used for prototyping

[VSV_electron]

Hello, I want to order a set of Dupont cables for general breadboard prototyping and I feel some of them might be more useful than the others so I would better order more of the most useful ones instead of equal amount of each.
I know all of them can be used but please stick to my question.

The set I'm choosing from contains the following typical types and lengths:

Male-Male: 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm
Male-Female: 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm
Female-Female: 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm

I assume the Male-Male is the most useful type for basic breadboarding (connecting the "dots"). Which size of them is most useful? Perhaps 10 cm?
Then there are additional tasks such as connecting pins to holes and for that the Male-Female type comes handy.
Lastly for connecting pin to pin we need the Female-Female type.

Of the three above connection types I feel that the Male-Male general breadboard connections will take maybe like 50% of the whole business?

Also I know people buy spools of the AWG22 wire - is that AWG22 that works best for breadboarding? By the way why? AWG22 is approx. 0.6 mm core while many components like diodes for instance and small transistors have legs well below 0.5 mm in diameter and they are used in the breadboard just fine as they are.
Anyway, people buy bulk of the AWG22 wire and using wire strippers create custom connectors. I may go that way also but I'm not sure if it would be better for a beginner.

So if we stick with the Dupont cables please give me the approximate proportion of the listed type to get so I don't end up with a bunch of F-F or M-F unused wires if I can get more of the ones used more often.

[ledtester]

Just buy one of each. They cost only about USD$1 for a 40-pack and you'll save on shipping if you buy them all at the same time.

After you start using them you'll have a better idea of which ones you should buy more of - if you need to. Having some on hand (even if they are longer than you need) is a lot more convenient than waiting for another aliexpress order to arrive.

[VSV_electron]

Just buy one of each. They cost only about USD$1 for a 40-pack and you'll save on shipping if you buy them all at the same time.

After you start using them you'll have a better idea of which ones you should buy more of - if you need to. Having some on hand (even if they are longer than you need) is a lot more convenient than waiting for another aliexpress order to arrive.

There are too many things to buy at the moment so every $1 counts - believe me or not.
As such let me repeat my question: which cable types and length are being used the most in the typical breadboard scenario - according to YOUR experience.
This question is for everyone when I emphasize YOUR above!

[Victorman222]

I find myself using 10 and 20 cm ones mostly, 20cm can stretch to almost full length of 830 dot breadboard. Using cable to make custom ones is also not bad, your projects can look alot cleaner and be easier to troubleshoot if you put in the effort to measure and cut the cable well (for example running power to IC's with 10cm dupont will look worse than just a small custom stripped cable). IMO if you feel that every $1 counts go with diy cable, it allows greatest flexibility for the least cost, but maybe you may find the effort of making cables distracting you from prototyping(but you will build up a stock of custom jumpers eventually).

[sokoloff]

I agree with the “buy one of all 9 to start”, but if you can only swing 4, get 10 and 20 mm MM and MF. The 5th one to add would be a 20mm FF.

One tip to add: buy a box of assorted shells. It’s a lot more convenient to work with the cables, especially going to modules, when the wires are all arranged and plug in all at once. Shells out to 1x5 are first priority, then 2x3 through 2x5, then as needed.

Get a PA-09 as the crimper as soon as you can afford it.

[SmallCog]

In the male-male I mostly use shorter lengths as breadboard links although this depends upon how elaborate your bread board project is

The male-female and female-female I mostly use between the breadboard and modules, or between arduinos and modules so longer lengths are more useful

I’d grab male-male in 10cm and 20cm as well as a male-female and female-female in 20cm if buying all of them isn’t viable in your circumstances

I don’t think any of mine are 30cm long

They often arrive as ribbon cable, don’t be in a rush to split them all apart it can keep things neater leaving them attached in groups (ie 3 together for vcc signal and gnd with just the ends separating to make the connections

[EPAIII]

First, I prefer #24 wire for the breadboards. But that may just be me. Nothing wrong with #22. While I have purchased a kit of various lengths, most of the breadboard wires I have have come from wire spools or pieces of multi-conductor cable that I have bought or scavenged. I like the multi-conductor cable because it will have a variety of different colors all in one cable.

On the Dupont connectors, I have never used them. I suppose they could be handy, but to me they are just not necessary. I would be more likely to use miniature (~1/8") coax when high frequency signals are involved. I would think that the most tempting variation of such cables would be a male-female version. It could plug into a breadboard and a part like an LED or a photocell or a microphone or an antenna could be plugged into the free end.

What I have used when I wanted a multi-conductor connection between two boards or devices while breadboarding are ribbon cables which come in a number of pitches (conductor center to center distance). The most common pitch is 20 conductors per inch but there are others, including metric. I have ribbon cable in several different widths (number of conductors). The wider widths can be split down to fewer conductors with ease so a length of 10 or even a 20 conductor ribbon cable can be very handy.

They make insulation displacement style connectors for ribbon cable with standard pin spacings, including the ever popular 1/10". But they also come in other spacings. These connectors, usually called header connectors, are females, intended to be connected to a male pin header on a part or a PCB. These male headers can be purchased in many widths and can easily be cut to the desired number of pins. They also come in two row versions and there are header connectors made for them. A popular combination is two row, 1/10" spacing header connectors with 20 conductor per inch ribbon cable. They work perfectly together. They also make D-subminiature connectors of both genders that have insulation displacement termination for standard, 1/10" ribbon cable. I have constructed entire systems with multiple circuit boards and input and output connectors on the back panel with these two types of connectors and ribbon cable. I have not seen male connectors for the ribbon cable but a row of header pins can be used to quickly convert the female ones to male.

The insulation displacement connectors can be assembled with an inexpensive tool that squeezes them closed but a small bench vise will also work. In making systems with ribbon cables and insulation displacement connectors I have saved my employers many, many hours of tedious time that would have been otherwise required in making the cables needed. A ribbon cable with two insulation displacement connectors can be easily made in under five minutes with time to spare for coffee. One squeeze and 2, 4, 8, 16, 20, or even more connections are made. A second squeeze and your cable is finished. Your custom cable is finished, that is.

Frankly I would recommend ribbon cable and insulation displacement connectors over those Dupont types any old day and twice on Sunday. They are far more versatile. And it does not look like they cost any more. A tip: get the rainbow ribbon cable. Each conductor, up to ten, is a different color. This helps when you need to actually break the individual wires out and connect them one by one.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Ribbon+cable&iax=images&ia=images

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=insulation+displacement+headers&iax=images&ia=images

https://bilder.tragant.de/produkte/orig/60c05bbda94065.46152354.jpg

[Infraviolet]

For dupont wires I'd go for all 20cm. Lots of male-male, but a decent number of male-female and female-female. Longer wires aren't usually needed when breadboarding, and you can always link up a series of dupont wires if you must (male-male then female-male...). Shorter wires are for being neat, but one should only be using dupont wires for prototyping on breadboards, not for final projects, so neatness doesn't matter. Except in high precise noise sensitive or high frequency stuff you'll get away just fine with ugly loops of 20cm wires when they're longer than they need to be.

The main use of females, by the way, is when connecting to male headers on modules and other devices (raspberry pi for example).

[Doctorandus_P]

What I use most is solid core wire jumpers. I have these from connecting adjacent holes (2.54mm + the length into the breadboard) up to about 3cm, and these are the first "layer" of wires on each of my breadboards. Because these lay pretty flat on the breadboard, they reduce the wiring mess and improve the overview. I typically use them for the part of the wiring that's "static" and "short".

20cm is probably the "most universal length". Because of the connector length and the "bow" in which the quite stiff dupond wires tend to be used, the range of the 10cm wires is quite short, while the 20cm can reach all across the breadboard. And indeed, you need all types. I use the female to male a lot for connecting the ubiquitous EUR 10 Logic analyzer to my uC projects and I use female to female for connecting the ST-Link V2 clone to the (now RIP) Blue pills and other STM32 boards. So indeed you do need all types.

When making connections such as between an ST-Link and a uC, I tend to first put the wires in the programmer, then twist them together and then connect the other side. This makes a "cable" out of those wires and reduces te wiring mess without putting too much time in it. Forget those "youtube" breadboard examples where all the wiring looks super neat. This costs way more time to achieve then it's worth, but putting in a bit (about 10%) of effort in to reduce the wiring mess by about 80% does pay itself back in easier fault finding and modifications.

I have also soldered some female header pins to the back of some long needles and covered them with two layers of heat shrink (with a bit of hot snot to keep that in place) These make quite good measurement probes.