RepJack B2: Electric Connector (12V 2A) by Harvie

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Printable electric connector can be used to connect two lines. There is no need for any additional contact. The wire itself becomes contact supported by the plastic.
Can only be used with stranded wire.
Despite the simplicity of design this is actualy quite useful for low-power, low-stress applications. Connection happens with quite satisfactory CLICK and it works reasonably well for most simple tasks.
I've gone through like 300 connect/disconnect cycles and the connector got tiny bit loose, but still provided reliable connection. I think it is safe to say that connector will last at least a year, when you only use it once a day. No further testing was done.
I've done some preliminary experiments with electrical characteristics and these are results:
6V 1A = probably quite safe...
12V 2A = can be done. probably.
24V 5A = Seems ok for short periods of time under constant supervision.
This connector is only designed to be used in dry indoor location. Because we use copper as contacts, it is wise to cover it with petroleum jelly suitable for electrical contacts, to provide at least basic protection. Of course you might gold plate the contacts, but if you use this connector, it's probably not in your budget range anyway :-)
Characteristic impedance of this connector is not known. But lets say you should be ok as long as you stay under 1MHz. What is wrong with you? :-)
Also this will probably burn your house down. Connector design does not come with certification or warranty of any kind. Consider yourself warned.
Some ideas for improvement:
Create some kind of snap-fit strain relief to fix the wire without hot glue
Better mechanical separation of poles (currently there is no barrier between contacts, which might make things worse if connector ever fails)
Better keying system to protect from reversing polarity
Parametric model with variable number of poles (probably needs to decrease spring strength if spring gets wider, also might need each contact to spring separately)
If you pull the wires, the contacts should be placed radialy to the force rather than axialy, so they don't get pulled apart, when connector is under stress.
Make it visualy more appealing and easier to handle