What is the model used for the connector on the non-OBDII side of the board? I see there is a pinout list, but I would like to know what model so I can design my interface with a mating connector type.
No one? This seems like a pretty simple request, and critical for anyone who actually wants to develop for this device!
Sorry Jeff, this one slipped past us!
That connector is HIROSE part number: DF11-26DP-2DS(52) (Digikey # H2876-ND)
Digikey sells the mating crimp connector and a PCB mount connector as well.
They even sell pre-crimped wires like this!
Is there a reasonably priced crimper out there for these? They seem to be about 1,000 on Digikey.
The official crimpers are always expensive, but open-barrel terminals are reasonably forgiving. Get the right width so it’ll fit into the housing, squish it enough to grip the wire but not so far that it elongates the conductor, and then nudge the insulation grips down just enough to snugly hold. You don’t have to be picky about crimp height or most of the parameters in the application specification. Just pull-test each one, that’s the gold standard anyway.
Working with automotive wiring, you’ll accumulate a small arsenal of crimpers for different terminals. The trick as a hobbyist is to minimize the number and cost of tools, while maximizing the range of terminals that you can make “good enough” crimps on.
I’ll try to share what I know:
The canonical recommendation for 2mm-pitch-and-smaller terminals is the Engineer PA-09, a beautifully crafted little tool that gets down to some really tiny dimensions. (I’ve had to remove the link as new users are only allowed to put 2 links in a post, but you can search for PA-09 on Amazon or Adafruit.) I don’t actually think the Engineer crimpers are ideal for this terminal, as the jaws are so thin, you have to “munch along” the crimp a few times to get the whole thing folded over. They’re worth owning anyway (especially if your interests take you in the direction of JST PH, XH, and other similarly tiny connectors), but I think we can do better.
This Hozan model shows a 3.2mm jaw thickness, which I think is just about perfect: https://smile.amazon.com/Hozan-P-706-Open-Barrel-Crimper/dp/B002TKG11G/ but I haven’t personally used those and can’t vouch for them. It looks like the widest selection of crimp sizes I’ve ever seen in a single tool, though, and it might be a real winner. It’s not the cheapest but looks quite reasonable, and the other Hozan stuff I own is beautiful quality so I definitely think the price is justified.
These are half the price of the Hozan set, and also really interesting: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01N4L8QMW/ I haven’t used them either but they claim applicability to some 2.0mm stuff, and for the price it’d almost be silly not to try a pair. I really don’t like ratcheting crimpers, since most hobbyists aren’t doing the exact same terminal onto the exact same wire every time, which is required to make a proper adjustment. If I order a set of those, I’ll be disabling the ratchet mechanism and doing it by feel.
Either of those two above would be my recommendation for the problem at hand right now. Beyond that:
I use a set of these for almost everything: (link removed, ASIN B003MWJ6SA or search Ballenger Motorsports for TOOL-01002.) The small nest is good for the ubiquitous 0.64mm terminals (GET and Gen-Y and similar; the dimension refers to the mating tab width not the pin pitch), and the larger nests handle the 1.5’s and 2.8’s you find on higher-current circuits. I don’t think they go quite small enough for those Hirose terminals, though. (They certainly aren’t small enough for CTX50’s, which have the same mating pitch, so I’m extrapolating.) Worth owning anyway, because you’ll use them for so much other stuff.
If-and-only-if you deal with sealed Weather-Pack terminals, you’ll need a set of these to do the seal crimps: (link removed, ASIN B002CCAEJ6 or search Ballenger Motorsports for TOOL-01001.) Every other crimper here produces W-shaped (also called B-shaped) crimps, which you need to fold in the wire-grip portion of the terminal, and those are also fine on the insulation-grip portion. But they’ll distort the rubber seals of Weather-Packs. Those must be crimped with a round nest, which this tool has as nests 1 and 5. Nothing else does that, and those nests have no other use.
Thankfully, Weather-Packs are getting pretty rare; almost everything exterior I’ve dealt with lately, even Delphi’s own modules, has switched over to mat-seal connectors that take standard (interior-style) terminals and just push 'em through tiny holes in a membrane. The hold-out seems to be fuel injector connectors, which one particular OEM also reuses on audio speakers.
(Other connector questions? Hit me!)
Thanks for the suggestions, Nate. Funny enough, when it come to Weatherpack I actually have a very nice crimper, a single pass one that does the terminal and the seal all at once. I really like the connectors as they are common on GM vehicles, rather robust and cheap!
I like the look of the IWISS one, probably going to pick up a pair.