Quick survey - We have a hotend and it has a PCB mounted on

Quick survey -

We have a hotend and it has a PCB mounted on it in both scenarios below. Please choose which configuration you would prefer to buy:

  1. Source/build a wire harness yourself and solder it to the PCB’s Vias.
  2. Connect the wire harness supplied with the hotend to a connector mounted on the PCB and solder/crimp the other end to your board or extend it if needed to reach your board.

Think carefully and let me know your thoughts please! Can’t say more :slight_smile:

FYI - all other info like resistance of thermistors as mentioned in the comments below is irrelevant. This is simply a question about users’ preference.

I would prefed the holes if it made a significant difference in price, but with a harness if not. I am lazy, but cheap…lol

I second cheap but effective.

No, the thermistor needs to be assembled as close to the hot end as possible using as few types of wire as possible (preferably a single type of wire). The more types of wires or connections that are added artificially increases the resistance. The exception would be if the thermistor was a microchip soldered to a PCB, then thermally mounted to the hot end. Then its just small gauge data cables running back to the controller.

What’s wrong with a mechanically well anchored decent spec connector. Whilst small errors do get introduced to the temperature reading by the connector, I consider them insignificant compared to the benefit of quicker servicing on a constantly in use machine.

I’d much rather a wire harness with a proper connector. We use the C-Grid III stuff from Molex with the locking connectors on 24v and it works well. But this is for a machine with well-defined constraints - if this is generic, meant to be universal to lots of other machines with different sizes, etc – soldered points all the way.

@MidnightVisions I’m not sure what you’re talking about? Only asking if people prefer a wire harness w/ connector or if they’re ok to solder the wires directly to a PCB and create their own wire harness with a connection (if they want to disconnect).

This is not about location of components.

I will clarify. - we are debating wether to put a connector on the PCB and provide a wire harness or only Vias and let users solder their own wire harness. The reason being that we could not find a connector that doesn’t “bulge” out too much or is too big to put on a tiny PCB that is mounted on the hotend.

If you have a hole to stick the wires through before soldering on the other side, that will keep them more or less stable. Will the heat of the hotend by high enough to melt solder or affect the operational temperature range of any components?

OK, so your a new manufacturer or experimenter trying to create something new. If your hot end is going into an existing machine, it all depends on how the machine is already wired up. If your building a new design around a new hot end, go with the option of a single run of wire without connectors for simplicity and reduced mass. The more mass is in the print head the more chances of wobbly prints.

Harness for sure. I had to deal with the soldering style setup while assembling the Rostock from SeeMeCNC and it was a damn nightmare.

Connectors are not overly expensive in the grand scheme of things. Customers coming back to you with issues about soldering couod cost you more.

A hole and screw clamps?

@Shai_Schechter how much “bulge”? You’ve already looked at right angle connectors, right?

Anyways to answer the survey, I wouldn’t care, I can manage either way. I suspect option 2 is accessible to more people. I don’t have any insight into any given group or demographic.

If this is a kit thing, I think the obvious choice is always assume that the builder doesn’t have any available tools. Requiring them to solder anything is a huge misstep in my educated opinion.