I made a small PCB to use KF141 connectors with Bus Pirate 5. KF141 comes as single terminals that stack together with 2.54mm pitch between terminals. It comes in vertical and right angle versions. Very handy for quick bare wire hookups.
Tomorrow we’re going to send kf141s to have pin names silk screened. I hope they can do bright orange to match the wire release thing.
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Im excited to find out!
Check out the difference in quality between these KF141R connectors. The more expensive one (left) stacks better, has less flash and a generally better appearance.
We’re definitely going with the better one, even at double the cost.
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This package was stuck in Hong Kong for more than two weeks, but we finally have the KF141 board. This felt a bit clunky, the space between the quick connector and the 10P female connector should be minimized on the final version.
I also soldered one this way to see if it felt less clunky. It actually felt much worse 
For the final version we’re going to silkscreen the pin names on the KF141 in orange. It should happen this week. I also think black PCBs would look nice for this one.
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I have three extra PCBs and connector sets if anyone wants to test it out. Just let me know.
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Silkscreen took a long time, usually turn around is fast. The right angle is pretty nice!
The vertical though… Everybody missed that they sent us an 11P instead of 10P. They’re stack-able though, so we’ll just remove the section with “BP5” and replace the end cap. Also, I intended the levers to be on the outside, instead of facing the Bus Pirate so it’s kind of backwards.
That’s OK! The team convinced me to keep my fun things in very low volumes so they don’t just collect dust in the office. If there’s interest we’ll make a second revision and fix it. If nobody wants it there’s not much going to waste.
KF141 boards arrived from the new PCBA. Joints look good but they left flux on the board. We sent them to be cleaned, and they should be back to us tomorrow or Thursday.
I’m somewhat concerned they’ll throw them in a bucket of board water (xi ban shui/PCB cleaner) and wash the silkscreen away. We asked them not to, fingers crossed.
This is the mysterious “board water”. I’ve never asked what it is, but it works a treat. It’s usually delivered in an alley by an electric moped. I’m sure it’s fine.
Here are some close-up photos of the back of the boards. You can see cluster of flux up and down the board. We had all of them packaged up and shipped back to the assembler and warned them about the silkscreen. I’m sure they know how to deal with this kind of mess. We are hoping to have these back in our office again by Friday at the latest. Other than the messiness, the boards look great! It’s our first time working with these guys and they were recommend to us by our PCB factory so we hope to continue working with them.
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Right angle vs vertical connectors! Which is more popular?
KF141 quick connectors: the right angle version is ahead by 3:1 after a week.
Pico silkscreen headers: right angle was a last minute decision. First instincts were right: vertical is ahead by a whopping 10:1
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This is the first time I’ve seen the final KF141 silkscreened connector in person. The pictures don’t do the silkscreen justice. It looks really sharp and very bright, super pleased with this one.
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