Pc Accessories- Idc Crimp Tool, For Flat Ribbon Cable And Idc Connectors

While assembling a 3D printer kit, the 8 cable ribbon cable provided was too short to reach from my control board to the touch screen display. After trying several compression tools which were not designed for ribbon cable, this seemed like a low cost alternative. My connectors are Dual Rows IDC Socket for Flat Ribbon Cable, 8P FC. Crimped two of these to an 8 ribbon wire (scaled down from 10 ribbon wire, tore off 2 wires of one side).First two crimps and this worked perfectly. Had 1 ohm or less resistance and continuity between all pins on the first attempt. Used breadboard male to male in each socket over the sequence of 8 to verify continuity so some resistance may be due to the ad hock measurement technique. Without this tool it wasn't possible to get even a single connector to connect properly. Connection was easy, and it is a wonderful tool for the job. Never knew these existed, but now it is possible for me to make an arbitrary length ribbon connected cable compressed into an IDC socket.The only down side is this smells a bit of machine oil, not too bad, but it may smell slightly of oil. Also the yellow crimp socket holder has 2 sides, each side is for a different thickness IDC connector. Others suggested on reviews here using scotch tape to hold the yellow socket holder in, this is very good advice. The scotch tape is mostly useful to preventing the yellow socket holder from getting lost in a tool box. It would be nice if the maker could publish a .STL file so we could reproduce the socket holder via a 3d printer if it's ever lost. This tool is a very good value if you need to connect IDC sockets via ribbon cable.

It works as intended. Not super high quality, but, very inexpensive. It’s easy to miss getting the connector fully into the grove on the plastic side, which results in a broken connector. If you’re careful though, and watch some YouTube videos to make up for the lack of instructions, this tool will work just fine. No regrets. (Though, if I had a hundred cables to make, I’d probably spring for a more expensive tool.)

Works perfect!

Picked up these crimpers to make a bunch of floppy cables and do not regret it for a second. It made making the cables easy as pie. Good quality, riveted together RIGHT which is rare these days. Often these types of basic tools are so poorly made that they are super sloppy at the hinges but not these.

Did not have a crimp dye in the package, picture shows it with a crimp dye. I had to design & 3D print my own dye to do Male on one side Female on the other for IDC connectors. Since I am/was doing 40pin (2x20) custom length IDC connector for an I/O Break Out Board for my Raspberry Pi 5. Took me a few hours of designing a dye to work with Male IDC on one side, and Female IDC on the other. Printed it using PETG with 4 walls, 35% infill. Worked perfect for crimping my male and female connectors (one of each) on the cable. Not sure why these vendors do not sell the dyes combo male/female or even individual. Did not bother sending it back for a replacement since my shipping cost back to amazon and the hassle would just not be work it to me.

The tool applies a solid even pressure, along the top edge of the connector. However, due to the nature of the design, you need to square up the ribbon, and check/ confirm before pressing down

Product came opened and in a state completely unusable unless the device was supposed to bend 360 and come apart just by looking at it.I don’t know who returned it in this state but it’s even more amazing that it got approved to go back on the shelf. Not worth it.

You need to learn how to use this on your own as no instructions included.Ok product if you have time and connectors to learn how to best use.