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Beginners guide - Jumper wires

pavanakp1904

Updated: Sep 15, 2024

Introduction

In order to connect two places to each other without soldering, jumper wires are just cables with connector pins at each end. To make it simple to modify a circuit as needed, jumper wires are commonly used with breadboards and other prototyping equipment.

Jumper wires
Jumper wires

Although there are many different colors of jumper wires, there is no real significance to the colors. Thus, in theory, a red jumper wire is equivalent to a black one. To distinguish between different kinds of connections, such as power and ground, you may take advantage of the colors.



Types of Jumper wires


Jumper wires come in three versions:

  1. Male-to-male jumper

  2. Male-to-female jumper

  3. Female-to-female jumper


There are two different kinds of head shapes: round and square. The wire's termination determines how each differs from the other. Female ends are also used for plugging; however they do not include a pin that protrudes as male ends do.


A male connection also features a solid pin for center conduction and is called a plug. A female connection, on the other hand, is called a jack and has a center conductor with a hole in it to receive the male pin.


1. Male-to-Male jumper


With the help of the male-to-male breadboard jumper wire, creating your own circuits on a breadboard is simple. These cables have a prototype board connection on both ends, making them versatile. For building circuits between your microcontroller and the breadboard on the bots, the jumper cable is perfect.

Male-to-Male jumper wires
Male-to-Male jumper wires

2. Male-to-Female jumper


These male-to-female jumper cables are used to join any development board with a female header pin to other development boards with a male connection. These are straightforward cables with connection pins on both ends that enable you to link two locations together.


Male-to-Female jumper wires
Male-to-Female jumper wires

3. Female-to-Female jumper


These are jumper wires that link the female header pin of an Arduino or other development board to the female pin of another development board. These are basic cables with connector pins on both ends that enable you to connect two places to one another.

Female-to-Female jumper wires
Female-to-Female jumper wires

Several configurations of jumper wires


Solid Copper Jumpers

solid copper wire
solid copper wire

The easiest way to connect jumpers between PCB places is with a solid copper wire. In order to bridge short jumper links up to an inch or less, simple copper wire that has been trimmed to size and soldered to pad connections is sufficient. Commonly used solid copper magnet wire has a round or square cross-section. Between 18 and 26 AWG is the thickness range.


Stranded Jumpers

stranded wires
stranded wires

Stranded jumpers create a thicker cable jumper by twisting or braiding many thin copper wire strands together. Stranded wires are flexible, making them easier to place over solder terminals and route through tight spaces. Standard setups use stranded jumper sets between 22 and 30 AWG. The solderability of stranded jumpers is improved by flux-core solder wicking.



Insulated Wire Jumpers