why are header sockets so pricey?

[djacobow]

I've designed a small daughterboard for a Raspberry Pi that provides watchdog & battery monitoring Pi's that will be deployed with solar panels in remote locations. The 40 pin 0.1" socket is by far the most expensive item on my BOM.

So far, I've only shopped at Digikey and Mouser and I can pay $3-5/ea while I prototype, but it just seems outrageous for some pins and plastic. I don't think I'll ever see great volumes, maybe a few hundred at most. Is there somewhere else I should be looking? In my imagination this part should cost about $1. I don't know where I came up with that number. It just seems right. :-)

Related question for socket experts: My board takes up the RPI GPIO header, but it would be nicer if another board could stack on top. I could do this by putting a male header on my board, offset from the Pi's, but even better would be if I could find a male socket that had long pins, like an Arduino, that could go through and act as a male header on the other side. I really hate the Arduino ones because the pins are ridiculously long. I guess ideal would be pins just long enough to look like normal 0.1" headers on the other side. Does this animal exist? And if it does, can it be machine soldered without the pins picking up gobs of solder?

[rstofer]

They're called 'stackable headers'

https://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=stackable+header

[SiliconWizard]

Most board-to-board connectors are pretty expensive. A lot are much pricier than the common 0.1" headers. Take a look at the Harwin connector line for instance. Crazy. (Although these are very good. But still!)

[djacobow]

They're called 'stackable headers'

https://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=stackable+header

It's interesting that all of these stackable headers are "from" Adafruit, SparkFun, SchmartBoard, etc. That is, these resellers are buying them "somewhere" and just selling them on Mouser. They are clearly aiming at hobbyist volume, as they do not even have decreasing block pricing.

[ultrarunner2018]

There is also a gold surcharge, so the price will fluctuate somewhat.

[langwadt]

I've designed a small daughterboard for a Raspberry Pi that provides watchdog & battery monitoring Pi's that will be deployed with solar panels in remote locations. The 40 pin 0.1" socket is by far the most expensive item on my BOM.

So far, I've only shopped at Digikey and Mouser and I can pay $3-5/ea while I prototype, but it just seems outrageous for some pins and plastic. I don't think I'll ever see great volumes, maybe a few hundred at most. Is there somewhere else I should be looking? In my imagination this part should cost about $1. I don't know where I came up with that number. It just seems right. :-)

https://lcsc.com/products/Female-Header_645.html?q=female%20header

2x20 female header; 100+ $0.1116
2x20 stacking header; 100+ $0.5547

[djacobow]

https://lcsc.com/products/Female-Header_645.html?q=female%20header

2x20 female header; 100+ $0.1116
2x20 stacking header; 100+ $0.5547

Dayum! Now we're talkin'.

[djacobow]

They're called 'stackable headers'

https://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=stackable+header

I just learned today that if you want two rows of pins in a stackable connector, you can add PC/104 to your search term, as that seems to be the (only?) market for this type of connector.