Why does nobody talk about the difference a proper pin crimp makes on a D-sub connector?

I was reworking a 37-pin connector on a nav system last week and the intermittent fault vanished after I recrimped every pin with the right tool. The old crimps looked okay but had high resistance under load. Has anyone else seen a problem that only showed up with the system powered?

2 comments

2 Comments

perez.mason4h ago

Proper pin crimps are the secret handshake of the electronics world that nobody wants to talk about. Of course the problem only shows up hot, that's when the bad connection decides to take a smoke break. Seen it a hundred times with cheap crimpers or the old "this pair of pliers looks about right" method. It's always a ghost hunt until you actually do the job right.

jennifer3583h ago

What's the actual failure rate on those cheap crimpers? I've seen guys go through a whole bag of pins before getting one that holds under load.