IDC punch-down-ish connector - Anyone tried this?

[DavidS]

A few weeks ago I had an idea that it would be really neat to be able to swap boards in and out of a box with no re-soldering.

Specifically, there are a lot of distortion boxes where I would like to be able to try out different component values easily, and not just on a breadboard, but have several PCBs loaded with components that I could easily swap in and out of an existing box. Most of the hard work and money for components in a homebrew stompox is in the chassis and mounted directly to it (jacks, housing, switches, knobs and pots) and the board and on-board components are relatively inexpensive (obviously not the case with analog delays, etc.).

So wouldn't it be neat to drop a different PCB into an effect with a modified circuit, that still used all the same controls and offboard wiring? Without desoldering and resoldering? I think so!

Anyway, a long time ago, I ran into a connector that looked alot like this mouser part:

Mouser # 571-6406203

Which alows you to connect to 0.1" header pins with some wires, without needing an expensive crimping tool, or having a nightmarish time using tiny pliers to crimp tiny-ass connectors. Just a simple punch-down connection, like used in telecommunications equipment.

Seems like these would be nicely suited to stompbox building. Even without wanting to swap boards, these connectors seem like they would make life nicer in general as far as stompbox assembly goes.

Has anyone already thought of and tried this? How did it work out?

The connectors are fairly cheap ($0.20 for a three-pin version in single quantities, not too steep), so I''l probably just go ahead with the experiment.

Any thoughts or related ideas?

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I have used IDC ribbon cables, suprisingly successful.
Critical lines can be shielded by grounding the adjacent wires .
Digikey sell a number of 'premade' short ribbon cables with eg. 16 pin DIP plugs on the end.