brewpi spark- temp probe wires into Rj11 jack?

so instead of just buying two of the sensors directly from brewpi, i cheaped out and figured id just pick some up on ebay. it wasnt the price they were charging, it was fact that it made shipping way more expensive for some reason.

in any case, the issue im having is that for the life of me i cannot get the three wires from the temp probe to actually set into the RJ11 jack and crimp down. its like they just wont go into the little slots inside the plug head. and i cant force them as they arent stiff enough (24ga) to be shoved into place.

anybody have any ideas? any DIY video/instructionals ive seen only show crimping with the full 4 wire/rj11 or 6 wire/rj12 setup. so no help there as only using 3 wires seems to be the problem.

i have the probes, a few rj11 heads, and a crimper tool. but even when i feel like i get the wires pushed up and into the head, the tiniest tug on the lines pulls them right out of the head. no crimping is taking place.

driving me crazy. advice?

Tin the leads?

Cheers!

i assume you mean solder? not really an option. the brewpi has female fj11/12 jacks, i'd rather not break into it and take them out.

i want to get them wired into the jacks. just need advice on how to do it.

What?

You're trying to crimp leads into a male RJ11 plug, yes?
But the stripped ends are too skinny for the crimps to hold, right?

So tin the stripped ends to increase their diameter, stick them in a new plug, and crimp it...

Cheers!

I thought you weren't supposed to strip the wires. Whenever I made RJ45 cables I would strip the outer insulation to expose the individual wires. Then stick all 8 into the connector and crimp it. The metal piece inside the connector will cut through the insulation to create the electrical connection.

That's true - if the wire used meets the requirements of the plug.
I never have to strip Rj45 connections (haven't crimped an Rj11 in a decade or more).

And then there plugs meant for solid core wire and others meant for stranded.

If the OP's wire gauge is too fine I can see why he's having problems...

Cheers!

the issue seems to be less that i have wires that are too thin, and more like they are too fat to go inside the plug deep enough to be crimped. it seems to me more like the wires are too big.

i ended up finding some plugs online that let you pull the wires all the way through the front of the plug, so you know they will be cramped down. now i just need to make sure i get the order right.

day_trippr said:

What?

You're trying to crimp leads into a male RJ11 plug, yes?
But the stripped ends are too skinny for the crimps to hold, right?

So tin the stripped ends to increase their diameter, stick them in a new plug, and crimp it...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

i thought you meant solder to the brewpi. i dont think the issue is too small a gauge wire, i think its just hard trying to only stick 3 wires into a jack for 4 or 6 wires. they just bend and kink before they get snug into the jack.

SanPancho said:

...i dont think the issue is too small a gauge wire, i think its just hard trying to only stick 3 wires into a jack for 4 or 6 wires

Click to expand...

If this is the case cut a short piece of wire to act as "dummy" 4th wire. Might be easier to line up that way.

If wire diameter is issue strip if too big, tin if too small.

Make sure you breadboard (trial jumpered connections) first before making your crimp. This will save multiple trial and error crimps.

The simplest solution would be get a rj11 terminated cable and just splice in the 3 wire leads to the probe.

I would use a small piece of telephone wire/cat 5 and crimp that end, then solder your temp controller to those exposed leads and head shrink it. I did it with my RJ-45 to DS18b20

OK, i found this thread after having this issue, found solution...

A little information first:
I am using the temp probe leads that you can get in 5-packs on amazon. The wire used in them has 3 conductors, but the problem is that the insulation on each one is too thick to fit in the slots in the crimp connectors. I assume these are about the same as the kind mentioned by the OP. The conductors and the insulation are also very flexible. Just stripping the conductors (wether you tin them or not) will not work, since the slots on the crimp connectors are not isolated from one another in completely separate channels, they are scalloped on the top and bottom to accept the correct diameter insulation. if you put in stripped wires, they would easily short out to the one next to it, do not attempt this.

So, on to my solution:
I got out my electric sander (black and decker mouse) and loaded a fresh sheet of 120 grit onto it. I clipped off the previously wire-stripped area, and removed about 2" of the outer sheathing insulation, but left the inner wires not stripped. I then carefully and gently sanded down the diameter of the inner wire's insulation until they were the correct size. Since the existing insulation is very thick, and the wires very thin, you have to be careful to make sure you work carefully, and slowly around the entire diameter. The portion of the insulation that was closest to the right size was in the middle of the length I was working on, not near the tip... So I lined up the correct order of wires, clipped them even, and then they fit right into the crimp connector properly. I did also work the outer insulation back down the wire, so when I did the crimp, the outer insulation was crimped into the strain-relief area of the back end of the connector, so if the wire gets tugged on, the wires don't fall out of the crimps.

i got lazy and just ordered some of temp probes from the brewpi folks.

and i still havent put the damn thing together yet. maybe that'll be my job today, watch new years bowl games and put this thing together finally.

So I got the clips on the probes, and they have been working great... Let us know how your project finished out, I love this BrewPi system, it is perfect.