where to find MALE 'dupont' crimp pins

[Didgitalpunk]

Hello,
I'm an electronics assistant engineer in a Uni in France (basically the person helping out everyone with their projects, teachers with practical work, inventory, test gear, etc.) and for the past year I've been searching high and low for these god damn male pins we see on Arduino jumper cables, but to no avail. I asked Mouser if they could help, they dug up a few incompatible suggestions (sad trombone noises), another supplier straight up gave me one of those chinesium do-your-own-jumpers kit, ugh.

Bit of extra background, My Uni works in robotics, and one of our courses participates in the RoboCup Rescue league. we make robots. we need custom cables and harnesses every year. custom jumper lengths,
Y split cables, etc. cables with DuPont on one side and something else entirely on the other. hence, the need to find those stupid male pins so I can finally stop buying jumper cables and chopping them up for the male bit.

Already looked a bit, Harwin makes female contacts but not males, and male MINI-pv seems like it might not work quite right with the Harwin M20 housings which I already have a stock of (Harwin is the brand name of all those chinesium DuPont clones)

no E-bay/amazon/aliexpress links please, I need proper suppliers for this :'(

Thanks in advance for any pointers!
~Freya

[Chriss]

Hi!
Is this something you searching for?
Maybe this link can help you and ask for delivery etc...

https://www.conrad.com/p/fci-crimp-contact-mini-pv-total-number-of-pins-1-48234-002lf-1-pcs-1401480

And here is another supplyer:
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/wire-housings-plugs/8602106

[Didgitalpunk]

hehe, that's everything I already have! I already have the female contacts, and the housings, I just need a good source of male contacts.
Thanks though!

[coromonadalix]

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/32916400981.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm

[janoc]

I don't think an "official" source of male pins exist, it is not a thing, they weren't made as these connectors are made to connect to the usual male header pins soldered to boards.

The only sources of these male crimp pins I have found are in China - the usual AliExpress and such.

[Didgitalpunk]

we can't buy on aliexpress, hence the "please no ebay/amazon/aliexpress" note at the end of my post. otherwise my problem wouldn't exist because , yeah, they're easy to find on all three!

[Didgitalpunk]

I mean, clearly someone makes them, and male Mini-PV contacts do exist, but I can't justify spending two+ grand on a reel of those because Farnell only sells full reels (well, I can justify it, just the higher ups won't be ok with it) when I'm not even sure they'll work with the housings we already have

[Didgitalpunk]

even having a name for the factory making the ones we see in Chinese kits would be a start tbh, we have a supplier that has the ability to work as a middleman to acquire stuff from companies not in our system.

[jpanhalt]

Check modeling shops/online stores for male servo connector pins.    I have some.  As a note, they are a little more difficult to crimp compared to the female contacts as they bend.

Edit: Added picture

[janoc]

I mean, clearly someone makes them, and male Mini-PV contacts do exist, but I can't justify spending two+ grand on a reel of those because Farnell only sells full reels (well, I can justify it, just the higher ups won't be ok with it) when I'm not even sure they'll work with the housings we already have

These won't fit? There you can buy even single pieces.

https://de.farnell.com/amphenol-icc/75967-111lf/contact-pin-32-28awg-crimp/dp/3727834?st=mini-pv

But shipping is from the US, so expensive + customs paperwork/fees will be due. Beware. 

Otherwise places like Adafruit, Sparkfun (they have resellers in France), Hobbyking, etc. However, there you will pay through the nose for stuff like this compared to buying it from AliExpress - and it is the same Chinese products.

[Didgitalpunk]

awwww, crap. found them...
At one of our supplier. 
https://www.gotronic.fr/art-25-contacts-males-ndr-tm-22803.htm

wtf kind of name is this?!

they also have them at TME
https://www.tme.eu/en/katalog/pin-headers_112937/?art=NSR-01&page=56

 

[Someone]

I don't think an "official" source of male pins exist, it is not a thing

The major brands disagree:
Molex, JST, TE Connectivity AMP, Amphenol
no need to look far or go to specialty or obscure brands. Many of the popular series have male pin options.

[amyk]

Doesn't "male pin" seem redundant? A "female pin" is normally called a socket.

[jpanhalt]

Doesn't "male pin" seem redundant? A "female pin" is normally called a socket.

No, nor is "female contact pins" an oxymoron.

[coromonadalix]

 

[tooki]

I mean, clearly someone makes them, and male Mini-PV contacts do exist, but I can't justify spending two+ grand on a reel of those because Farnell only sells full reels (well, I can justify it, just the higher ups won't be ok with it) when I'm not even sure they'll work with the housings we already have

Oh come on, surely you could figure out to look at the datasheet or catalog and find the loose pieces, or use Octopart to find a vendor that sells cut strips.

https://www.digikey.ch/short/3f78303z covers all the major manufacturers’ 2.54mm pitch male contacts. There are others, too. Most series don’t have single-pole housings, though. Mini-PV and Harwin M20 do. But you can also just bend in any retention hooks and then just put heatshrink over it instead (e.g. with AMPMODU or SL).

If you’re ok going with the heatshrink route, look at the male contacts for the TE Micro Quadlok (MQS) series, e.g. 5-962886-1: rather than a pin made of folded sheet metal, they use an actual proper header pin, welded into a welded-sheet-metal body, making for a much more robust pin that won’t snap off. Despite this, they cost less than Mini-PV pins!

[tooki]

Doesn't "male pin" seem redundant? A "female pin" is normally called a socket.

No, nor is "female contact pins" an oxymoron.

I would certainly say it is. I totally agree with amyk here: “pin” is male and “socket” is female, and the umbrella term for them is “contacts”. The gender of the contacts is not necessarily the same as the gender of the connector as a whole (e.g. you can have a male connector — it inserts into the jack — that holds female contacts). For example, in coaxial connectors, the part normally used on the cable is the “plug”, and the part normally used on the housing is the “jack”, even in “reverse polarity” connectors where the pin and socket contacts are reversed, resulting in the plug holding the socket contact and the jack having the pins.

(Before anyone bothers “correcting” me, I am aware that some English speaking countries say things like “jack plug” that sound like lunacy to my American ears.)

Or how standard IEC power connectors fundamentally work: a male jack as the AC input on the appliance, and a female plug on the cord. (Yes, I’m aware of the opposite ones, for AC outputs on devices and cable-mounted inputs. Just describing the most common case.)

I know some people (and some languages that aren’t English) prefer the usage of defining a connector’s polarity strictly by the polarity of its contacts (e.g. they’d say that the IEC input on your computer is the “plug” and the mating end of the power cord is the “socket”), making a strict equivalence of “male == plug” and “female == socket”, but IMHO that’s silly, especially given that there are connectors without pins and sockets (like the leaf springs in USB connectors), and ones that use both genders of contacts at the same time (like the French mains plug). So I much, much prefer identifying the connector as a whole as a plug or socket based on how the connector in its entirety works or is used.