Vending machine

[Black_tb]

Friend of mine has a vending machine and has a messed up connector he needs some of the pins for the molex connector anybody know where he can get some

 

[Sir ffeJ]

Could you not just buy a molex connector from an auto parts store and just take that apart? A pic of it might help.

 

[Black_tb]

View attachment 24110 this would be the problem he has tried different computer places and a local vending place

 

[The_Roadie]

We gets ours at work from Digikey, Newark, Mouser, etc. Any of the large electronic distributors. Radio Shack used to carry them, but not much anymore. Fry's or your local equivalent of a larger electronics storefront. Molex has MANY varieties of pin sizes. Appliance parts stores may also have loose items like that.

 

[Black_tb]

Sounds good roadie hopefully those three will have something on a website

 

[The_Roadie]

That looks a whole like the Molex 0.093" series (MX150 and many others), but your photo just isn't helping much.

View attachment 24111

 

[Black_tb]

View attachment 24112

View attachment 24114

Maybe this would be better

 

[The_Roadie]

Maybe the Molex Mini-Fit series? (One of my many hats at work is component engineering) A better photo with dimensions would be ideal.

View attachment 24115

 

[6716]

Radio Shack might have that. I had to repair a similar connector for my son's robotics controller about two weeks ago.

I wandered in with just the parts that were messed up, and didn't lose heart when the kid working the counter admitted his only training was in cell phone sales. It might be hard to drag the vending machine in, though maybe you can get just the connector into the store.

The kid was helpful in that he did open up a couple of packages of connectors for me, so I could figure out which ones matched up, and then taped up the ones that didn't match and put them back in the case.

Plus, they had the crimp pin extractor tool which I needed as well.

Here's I guess what I'm trying to say ... you may not need the plastic connector piece, if it is undamaged.

If you push out the pins with the extractor tool, and then match up the pins for size, and then crimp the wires back on to the pin, and push the pin back into the connector, you are good to go and you only need to replace the pins ... which Radio Shack probably has in store.

Extractor tool is less than $10, pins are a couple of bucks a pack.

 

[The_Roadie]

That puppy isn't totally dead. If you have the pin extractor for that pin, or know the trick to using a needle to get them out, you can uncrimp the crimp, lay in a fresh section of stripped wire, then recrimp and solder them in carefully. All depends on if he's in the vending machine business or just a hobby.

 

[6716]

if it is .093", you can definitely get the extractor and pins at Radio Shack.

Is the plastic itself damaged? Or are just the wires pulled out?

View attachment 24116

 

[Black_tb]

View attachment 24117

View attachment 24118

View attachment 24119

View attachment 24120

The last one is the other end

 

[6716]

I'd head to Radio Shack. I'll bet it's better than 50% that you can get what you need and be back up and running in less than an hour.

 

[Black_tb]

View attachment 24124

View attachment 24125

Maybe these will help also

 

[The_Roadie]

Pretty sure what you have there is a Molex Mini-fit Jr. series 5557 housing. If it's 16 AWG wire, you need female crimp pins 5556 series. Definitely not the round .093" as we originally thought that Radio Shack has. A picture of the mating male end would have been a fast way to tell.

Look on this Mouser page:

Mouser Electronics - Catalog Viewer

Mouser Part #: 538-39-00-0078
Manufacturer Part #:
39-00-0078

 

[Black_tb]

Thank you roadie !! Always can count on you sir

 

[Black_tb]

Hey roadie question those fittings worked perfected but my next question does radio shacked sell a crimper or where could I pick one up

 

[The_Roadie]

Mouser should also sell the crimper, but they have precision dies, and I don't think I've ever seen a professional one under $200. Ahhhh, the ones they sell are listed on the catalog page link I posted. $230 or so. We have a collection of about 30 at work for all sorts of connector styles, and engineering is "strongly motivated" to use a series we already have a crimper in stock for, so we don't do something silly and design in a new lower-cost connector series only to blow the entire savings on the production tooling to use it.

What I always do at home if I'm in a hurry to do what you're doing is a pliers crimp. Just use needlenose pliers to fold over the metal flaps of the tab onto the conductor and insulation. Touch it up with solder to improve the reliability greatly. See this picture of a crimped pin from the catalog:

View attachment 24435

 

[Black_tb]

By the way my friend has fixed the connector on his vending machine an last I heard it was working thanks again for the help

 

[Black_tb]

View attachment 25432
Picture to prove that he fixed it lmao

 

[The_Roadie]

My mission is to just help out. If you're happy, I'm happy.

 

[silverunicorn]

View attachment 11196
Picture to prove that he fixed it lmao

So....I'm guessing he had alot of red wire lying around?

That'll make it REALLY easy to troubleshoot if needed. "Check the red wire"


Glad he got it working!

Chris