Introduction: Lets Make JST Plugs a Little Easier to Work With

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About: I'm just a maker, absolutely love designing and making all sorts of different kinds of things, and am quite happy to help others to do the same. One of my favorite quotes & practices: It's not the resou…

JST plugs. If you've worked with electronics, odds are you have used
MANY of these little pains in the finger tips. *As he lightly laughs, begrudgingly*

Step 1: Lets Take a Look at This Little Helper

In the pictures, you have one of the part (the little helper) and a couple of it at work while I work on another project where I'm working with an Adafruit Circuit Playground Express (CPX) with a LiPo battery stuck to it's back. Forgive the bright lights, but if you look you'll see the JST plug, plugged in to the jack with the black part sitting on the battery wire waiting to slide down the wire & snapped into place; and the other picture is with the part in place & doing it's job.

Step 2: Let Me Show How to Get It Put to Work Helping You.

Well, First you're going to need a file & a 3D printer to print it out on.

Here's the file, I've already posted it up on Thingiverse:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3120773

Go ahead & down load the file, it's tiny, just like the part. Seriously, it'll fit right on you finger tip. Just take a look at the picture. Sorry, not enough sleep = bad jokes. :-P If you have a 3D printer or if you want to use one of the many fine print services out there. Go ahead & print it up, print up a dozen. That's what I did, so I could have extras sitting in a drawer ready to get put to work. Just grab & use, so you can keep right on working on what ever project you're working on.

Now to really get the benefit of these little parts you're going to have to do a little sanding on your JST plugs to allow them to slide in & out of the JST jack more easily. Because let's face it, if they were made to regularly plug and unplug easily - one, by themselves they wouldn't stay plugged in quite as well as they do. Two we wouldn't have sore finger tips from fighting with them to unplug them, and three, I wouldn't be writing this tutorial.

Ok, Brass tacks and in a nut shell.

Download & print the parts. They're designed to snug the wires on a typical LiPo wire pair and be left on there if you want.

Sand your JST plugs so they slide in & out of the JST jack fairly easily. Careful not to over sand the parts of the jack, don't want to weaken it.

Squeeze the wires into the clips.

Plug the JST plug into the JST jack, and snap the piece over top, locking the JST plug in the jack.

And there you go, enjoy & keep on making!