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alvarop / usb_c_cable_tester

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Suggestion: Change USB-C connector to a widely available and cheaper 24p one #20

Closed Ardakilic closed 2 months ago

Ardakilic commented 6 months ago

Hello,

First of all, thank you for open-sourcing the project.

Today I have built the tester myself, and realized the usb-c connector that I've purchased does not fit properly to the case.

This is because the pinout is somehow different.

After confirming the pins match, I have bought this: $1.91 / 10 pcs:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32879436811.html

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However, today I realized the ground shielding does not fit.

I used a wrench and my soldering techniques. It fits and works.

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To change to the proper connector, I searched, and in Aliexpress, there are only 2 sellers, which I believe sells the item and fits to the footprint. I thought these should be widely available.

The closest one, which I could find available is this, and it costs $1.4 per part, https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005376413109.html

And it's almost 10 times more expensive than what I've bought, even more expensive than LCSC.

There are various connectors that are 24 pin and pinouts match 1:1, and available at LCSC, where the footprint matches, widely available in other vendors, and they are way cheaper:

For example:

There are a lot of more connectors, these are just the results of my humble 5 minutes of searching.

The greater issue is that the lack of availability of the part, apart from the price, as I mentioned.

I reside in Turkey, and my best bet is Aliexpress. After that there is Farnell Turkey, which they don't stock much, and ozdisan.com , and they both lack the connector.

And in Aliexpress, I found only two sellers, as I mentioned.

The pinout is same for both 24 pins, as I checked the footprint: Both SMD 12 pins, and the through hole other 12 pins, so I see no problem on switching the footprint to this widely available footprint model.

I'd appreciate if this is considered.

Thanks in advance!

exetico commented 5 months ago

Hi,

I just stumbled upon the project, and noticed your issue, as I noticed the pretty high price of the C2761408, currently used in the design (8,43 USD for 10 Qty).

So I'll just bump this, so I can follow the process. It's the most expensive part of the BOM, so I guess there's many options to bring down the cost a bit, by replacing the connector with a cheaper one, as you're also suggestion. I'm not going to risk ordering it with another connector, without having a input from the original author, though. 😄

Thanks for bringing this to the table.

It's not a good ideá to bring in other issues, but I also noticed that I can't get the "Component Placement" to render. But maybe that's something locally on my machine.

No render of the Component Placement solution ![image](https://github.com/alvarop/usb_c_cable_tester/assets/3549445/e3ab86e9-9da2-41e5-babf-9eee7f0edcbc)
alvarop commented 5 months ago

Hi,

I just stumbled upon the project, and noticed your issue, as I noticed the pretty high price of the C2761408, currently used in the design (8,43 USD for 10 Qty).

So I'll just bump this, so I can follow the process. It's the most expensive part of the BOM, so I guess there's many options to bring down the cost a bit, by replacing the connector with a cheaper one, as you're also suggestion. I'm not going to risk ordering it with another connector, without having a input from the original author, though. 😄

Thanks for bringing this to the table.

It's not a good ideá to bring in other issues, but I also noticed that I can't get the "Component Placement" to render. But maybe that's something locally on my machine. No render of the Component Placement solution

Hi @exetico, I believe that's $8,43 for all 10 of them, which is $0,843 each, which is a good price. (On the JLC Page)

@Ardakilic Thanks for all the suggestions. Unfortunately, current stocks does not represent future stock :/ It will be an endless update cycle to keep trying to use whatever is available at the moment. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do that right now. The other issue is that I'd have to check them all too to make sure the ground and shield aren't shorted together (they are in a few of them) before designing too.

My current plan is to make one new release with readily available parts that can be purchased on digikey/mouser and leave it at that. Happy to link to forks of the project if anyone wants to do it or maybe even look at PR's

Ardakilic commented 5 months ago

@alvarop Thanks for the reply.

The main issue I find with the current footprint is that it's not a rather generic one, so you're stuck with less brands (both in JLC/LCSC and other vendors). All of the links I've shared (and even more on LCSC's inventory) share the same footprint. That's why I suggested in the first place.

Of course, the price is a bonus, however, my main concern is the availability, and as you mentioned, current stock does not represent the future stock, that's why I believe a more generic footprint brings more alternatives and availability to the table.

Edit: If that would matter at all, for future reference for people who want to hand solder themselves, what I've bought from Aliexpress has different pins for shield and GND.

alvarop commented 2 months ago

I've created a hand-solderable one with commonly available parts here: https://github.com/alvarop/usb_c_cable_tester/releases/tag/v2.4

It's more expensive, but it won't require chasing component stocks as much.

Ardakilic commented 2 months ago

Heya @alvarop , awesome to hear there's a hand solderable version now. Thank you for the heads-up, and thanks again for the work you've put into this!