Need help to identify the type of connectors

[ranashi]

Looking at the P1S interface board

Extruder Interface Board - P1 Series

Does anyone know what kind of connectors these are? I am wondering as I seem to see a lot of people having issues with one the fan connector and well I ran into an issue last night with my front housing assembly where one side of the plastic clip on this plug seperated. So it doesn’t clip in like it should at this point, I can get it to stay in however it doesn’t function like it should. I am now forced to purchase another assembly (I am not positive when it broke or if it was like this from the start). I am questioning if this is also why a lot of people run into the fan speed is irregular message. If one part of the plastic clip was broken during initial assembly and they got it to attach and it works. As it will work, but if you bump it or don’t get it just right it will have this issue again.

I couldn’t figure out why that clip wasn’t staying in on that assembly once I popped that cover off to do a nozzle change to a 0.8mm well one side of that clip is missing the plastic component covers the pins to clip in and hold them in place on the female portion that is on the “extruder interface board”. The fan has the female side, with the extruder board having the male component. As you can see in this picture one side of the clip has the plastic on it the other side doesn’t.

[user_3026326371]

I think the cheapest option is still a complete hotend kit for 25 bucks.
Or to grab just the connector with heater and sensor for under 10 bucks off AliExpress.
I tried in catalogues and databases but could not work out what connector type is used on the P1

[Olias]

To answer your question—what your image shows is technically not a connector. It is actually a PC board assembly with soldered wires epoxied to the other side. In short, this is not an off-the-shelf purchase part due to the custom connector.

However, if you’re looking for the surface-mount connector soldered to the PCB, the style is likely either Hirosi or JAE. Either way, good luck sourcing it outside of Asia. The chances of finding a supplier willing to sell in volumes under 10,000 are slim. You could try the usual suspects—Digikey and Mouser—since they have the best parametric search tools, but the last time I attempted this, I came up with nothing.

Full disclosure: I work in this segment of the industry and even leveraged my industry contacts to see if any subject matter experts could identify the source. The dimensions of this connector density were deemed highly unusual. Normally, you’d see this type of PCB assembly with a flex PCB for use in micro-miniature electronics like cell phones. However, this one is too thick even for that purpose, which leads me to believe it’s a custom part.

Even with my best industry contacts, I had no luck tracking down the exact source. Truth be told, I was hoping to side-hustle some pigtails for obscene profit, but I couldn’t even find a supplier. If you manage to source one, let us know!

By the way, my Canadian friends described this manufacturing method as ‘Janky.’ A reputable designer would never take this kind of approach—it’s just plain poor.

[DaLanMan]

wow, old school

aiirc that is a Sony/pederson header interconnect. No idea if that is an official name, but it was from when Sony was making radios way back and selling them through Pederson (brand of I think marine radio) They are modeled off a parallel force connector, the kind you had o use a vice to punch connectors through a flat cable. Famous for being super shitty if you had any heavy motion, you know like a boat on the water. I still have the number of the guy I worked for that I saw those at I can ring if needed, but bac then they were considered I did not know anyone used them still.

[user_3026326371]

@DaLanMan

Sony/pederson header interconnect

Now that you mention this…
I remember that on my home entertainment stack I had a flat cable connecting all units.
Apart from having been much bigger and more pins they looked identical if memory serves right.
Sometimes it was enough to touch them with the duster and there were signal issues.

Here’s the thing though…
I have no issues finding third party boards and assembled heater/temp sensor cables in the usual China market places.
Some look like Bambu, some clearly have marking and colour differences.
Means there IS a company over there supplying those connectors for both ends.
Emailed a supplier on China direct and got a reply within 2 hours - unthinkable here in AU LOL
Was told they use ‘compatible’ headers and connectors of better quality than Bambu.
Did not claim unbreakable though.
Custom orders are possible for both cables and PCB’s.
So yes, if one really wanted one could just make a new connection board of same size and fill it with standard connectors or even pogo style ones.
As some already pointed out, volume is the downside.
I could get a sample of a few connectors but other than that the bare minimum is 1000, one type/item or combined…
For just the solder on ones and matching connectors it would come down to about 60Cents AU per pair.
Around $650 to $680 including shipping, handling and all that.
Mind you though that they consider this an INITIAL order with follow up orders of at least 5000 pieces each.
Might be worth ordering the 1000 and to forget doing business with them again but often that means being excluded from a lot more vendors shortly after.

Tried to work it out the other way around…
The board is quite simple.
The main connector can stay but those for fan and hotend should be replaced with more suitable ones.
Having this done as a limited job right in China for let’s say 2000 units, including matching heater/temp sensor assemblies would cost around 8 to 12 bucks - US bucks…
$3000US max for the lot.
How much would one be willing to pay after those connectos failed and a replacement is due?
Make it twice of what Bambu is asking for and you still make a nice profit.
Too old for these hassles and upkeep but if someone wants to try I would be happy to buy and test a prototype one day

[DaLanMan]

If ya held me toes tot hge fire I could produce these, I wouldn’t too many easier solutions., but the board looks like just interconnectors, PCBWay is your friend in a pinch. I have a fab lab I can access, yet, I have ordered from pcbway because the lab is like all the way over there ::waves generally south:: and the lovely delivery folks bring stuff for me every day some weeks, much better than driving to a lab…

Damn, when did I suddenly gert so old.

If pushed I would swap those out for a gang pin system, just punch pins directly in on top of the traces, I love a good brute solution.

[user_3026326371]

I had a look just based on the pin spacing and it seems there would be quite a few connector types available for cheap that fit the spacing.
Quick blow with the SMD heat gun and then comes the problem with the cables on the hotend being too short once the connector is cut off…
Don’t know but personally I would see if I couldn’t whack it all onto a board with mini pogo connectors.
It is just four wires for the hotend and the fan connector also has more pins than required.
A max of 7 or 8 would do just fine and that in a single mini pogo is quite small.
For crying out loud, if I wanted to go cheap and dirty I might even go with the magnetic USB connectors.
Two of them gives 8 usable ‘pins’ on a very tiny footprint…

[ranashi]

I appreciate the detailed description on this for the people that are not familar with these items. I too have a electronic engineering background, I am looking for the connector itself to start as it is unlikely to find an assembled pigtail, I realize the whole pigtail would be nice, however if I can find the connector itself, something for a redesign and/or a place to start is possible. I know China has something for the hotend fans. They don’t have anything for the front housing assembly. Replacing the surface mount connector is very simple even with the epoxy. I am guessing also it is a china sourced part however I would guess it isn’t going to be a completely custom plug just a non-common one. I am not sure why they changed to this one on the P1S from the X1. I am guessing manufacturing costs is the reason they went to these plugs.

[Olias]

I should have mentioned this earlier—this is a customer-specific connector, and despite my industry contacts, I haven’t found it available on the open market. It appears to be from a China-based company with no global distribution. If anyone does come across it, please share the details here so others can benefit. For now, I’ve had no luck, and my industry network is quite extensive

[PandaFood]

I’m in the industry as well and I haven’t come across it either.

[user_3026326371]

There is a lot of seller on the China market places like this one on Aliexpress.
Some offer these combos for far less if buying in bulk.
From there I went wholesale and quickly found suppliers like these guys on Alibaba.
Some sold tons of them, far more than what seems possible and in bulk dirt cheap.
You might be surprised how many of the high volume providers offer customisation or in this case to just order the connectors.
Yes, they are reluctant to provide the company name manufacturing the actual connector but that’s normal in China as one company there won’t harm another.
But if you order 1000 of these connectors for under 600 bucks, where’s the harm?
Even a standard connector ordered from Mouser can cost more than that…
Just saying…
If there is a will then there is a way.
Am sure that if you contact some of those China companies using a business Email address they will be even more supportive than for some lame individual like me…
It would really though if know someone who is fluent in Mandarin or such so the company can see your are ‘one of them’

[Wsquared58]

Just buy a new cable. I think think those male/female connectors may be proprietary. I’m familiar with various types of connectors but I have zero skill at taking the male and female pins, crimping them to the wire and in some cases fitting the pins into the plastic connectors.
JST has a bunch of sizes, Grove is another, as is Dupont but the connectors in the toolhead are none of those

[user_3026326371]

Some similar connectors I found in an identification handbook.

Manuf: Amphenol
Series: BergStak MezzSelect [pdf]
Vendor: digikey

Manuf: GreenConn
Series: CBBC
Main characteristics: Interior; Board-to-board; Mezzanine,Backplane; Family mate; 4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40,42,44,46,48,50,52 circuits
PCB termination: Grid rows; 0.80 mm pitch
PCB mount/orientation: Vertical:Straight,Horizontal:Right-angle

Manuf: Hirose
Series: DF12 [pdf]
Other sources: INCP: IPCW100H1;
Vendor: digikey

Manuf: JST
Series: JAS [pdf]
Main characteristics: Interior; Board-to-board; Mezzanine; Family mate; 120 circuits
PCB termination: Grid rows; 0.40 mm pitch

Manuf: Molex
Series: SlimStack 0.4mm 54552 503376
Vendor: digikey
Main characteristics: Interior; Board-to-board; Backplane; Family mate; 30,34,40,50,80,90,110 circuits
PCB termination: Grid rows; 0.40 mm pitch
PCB mount/orientation: Vertical:Straight

If one wanted to change to a more reliable connector I guess there is plenty of options…

[ranashi]

I agree they are similar but vastly different unfortunately. These ones don’t break easily and would have been a much better option. They don’t have the empty spot in the middle between the pin areas.

[Wsquared58]

I think that all of the connectors in the toolhead and any other boards that I have not had to look at yet were quite purposefully made with these connectors as part of Bambu Lab’s closed system philosophy to prevent a proliferation of aftermarket electronic repair parts.

Things like the extruder and nozzles are easily reverse engineered in relatively small batches and there is a market for those parts because a certain percentage of Bambu owners like to tinker with their machines. That tinkerer demographic could care less about a ribbon cable.

[simon14]

@user_3026326371

Having this done as a limited job right in China for let’s say 2000 units, including matching heater/temp sensor assemblies would cost around 8 to 12 bucks - US bucks…
$3000US max for the lot.
How much would one be willing to pay after those connectos failed and a replacement is due?
Make it twice of what Bambu is asking for and you still make a nice profit.
Too old for these hassles and upkeep but if someone wants to try I would be happy to buy and test a prototype one day

If you still keen on this

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005730185869.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.592.2c841802FGoG26

I bought this half year ago, in attempt to retrofit the X1C hotend fan into P1S hotend fan, but they sent me the male ones instead of female. The male one is for part blower fan at the front cover.

I soldered one to the X1C hotend fan and it didn’t fit to the toolhead board since both male - male instead of female - male. I still have 2 extra. If you want it, I can just mail it to you. I’m from Sydney.

[user_3026326371]

Nice find indeed!
But after reading all those threads and posts of failing or broken connectors I think IF one of mine ever fails (on the boards) I will order a new board to keep going but use the old one to give my SMD station the task of putting some more suited (for my needs) connectors on there - or to have a custom board made if the spacing for the pins isn’t a match, cheap enough these days.

For connectors in hard to deal places I really started to like pogo pins/connectors.
Easy to get into prints and the magnetic ones are surprisingly strong.
Perfect for the fan, even if just these magnetic USB ones are used.
Oops I pulled to fast/hard on the cover and ripped the connector out…
Who cares if only a magnet holds it…
For the heater and sensor the connectors are IMHO only good to make things complicated.
Bad place, hard to align, fragile…
So why not reduce the required 4 connections to a connector with let’s say just to go totally wild here FOUR pins…
Preferably all rated for a bit more than the 60W the heater requires.
I don’t have to work often there since I have my higher quality hotend but if I would try to make money by printing I would certainly just solder new connectors onto hotend kits and have a custom board in there.
Same for the inside of the AMS by the way - magnetic pogo pins…
Have enough discarded Bambu hotends where the connectors are still in mint condition, so hopefully some time before I have to consider a better board…
Hopefully…