So, you’ve probably noticed that sticking things into the Jumperless’s breadboard contacts isn’t quite as easy or smooth as regular breadboards. Here’s why:
I was being to cautious with my original design, I was worried those would catch on the underside of the plastic breadboard or hit the walls and not open enough for larger wires.
Turns out, that created the issue of leaving too much of a gap for things to get around the clip or catch on the edge.
So I’m having the spring clip molds updated with a small adjustment:
Now they should cover the entire opening to the breadboard and make it much harder to get a wire around it and possibly damage the clip.
I know this doesn’t help people who already have them, and these probably won’t make it into the next batch being made, so you’ll probably start seeing these Q1 2024. I’ll set up some sort of trade-in program for people who are bothered by it and want the new revision. Or you can just ask me for a set of the new ones when they’re available and I’ll send them to you for free and you can solder in the new ones yourself.
Anyway, just to take full advantage of my Fusion 360 student license’s free cloud rendering credits, here are a bunch of renders of the new clip revision.
The reason that making changes to something like this is such a huge deal, is that they’ve made a big custom fourslide mold for this to do all the stamping and bending (here’s a SmarterEveryDay video about this exact process, just pretend everyone working there is Chinese.)
So any adjustments to the part require them to CNC out parts of the mold and add extra metal bits on the mating surfaces. It’s an expensive process, this little edit will probably cost me ~$1,500-2,500 (or if I was doing this in the US, ~$60,000.) But it bothers me that it isn’t as perfect as it could be so I think it’s worth it.
Let me know how much or little these clips are bothering you. If enough of you really hate it, I could hold up production on this new batch, have them dump the 40,000 clips they’ve made into the nearest wildlife sanctuary, and have them remake them all with this update.
Nice! I bent two clips during assembly when trying to get the full row of header pins in. It’s been a bit annoying with breakout boards with maybe 4+ pins in a row, but just takes some finesse.
There’s also a good news update about all this. So, I ordered 40,000 clips for this current batch of Jumperlesses, and it turns out the spring clip manufacturer made 32,000 of them with positive tolerance, meaning they measured from the inside instead of the outside to account for the thickness of the metal, so they’re too wide to fit in the boards.
Elecrow (the people assembling them) told them so and they immediately agreed to remake all 32,000 clips for free. I paid them half price anyway for the remake because they’re a pretty small company and I didn’t want them to lose money on my project; I want them to stay around because they’ve been great to work with. But, what that means is, the new clip update will be pushed out way sooner than I had expected.
They had 8,000 extras from the last run, so there will be 100 boards made with the old clips, and the remaining 400 will be made with the updated design. It’s funny when someone comes to you with what they think is terrible news and you respond with “Holy shit that’s awesome!”
So yeah, there will be 100 boards with the old clips ready before Christmas, and then 400 more sometime in January with the new revision.
I also ordered 10,000 extra clips so when they’re ready I can swap out the clips on the boards you currently have if you like.
Hey kid… yeah you… wanna see some hot pics of the stamping mold for the clips?
Hello, I think the Jumperless project is super cool. Due to my personal hobby, I am trying to implement my own version of the Jumperless project. I purchased 16 Spring Clips, that is, 16*10, for a two-breadboard set, on Tindie. I was surprised and happy to find that you marked them as 100% free, and you only need to pay shipping from the United States to China. Yes, I was the one who placed the order in early December.
Another question, since I am also in mainland China, can I contact Shenzhen Fulimei Company through you to produce a batch of Spring Clips? This can reduce transportation costs.
Ha, thanks for letting me know I had accidentally put a 100% off sale sitewide on Tindie. And thanks for your restraint and not ordering like a million of everything in my shop.
Anyway, I sent you enough for 3-4 boards and some plastic breadboard shells.
And yeah, when you need enough clips to meet their minimum order quantity of 10,000 (enough for 125 breadboards), let me know and I’ll put you in contact with them and let them know you’re welcome to use my molds.
I’d love to see your take on the Jumperless, feel free to post your progress here on the forum.
It’s crazy what 0.25mm can do. What’s hilarious is that outside of the breadboard, you can barely tell them apart, try to guess which is which then click the spoilered image
So, if the current clips are bugging you at all (they bug me), send me a message. I’m going to do a free recall on them.
How it’s going to work when the new boards come, is that you let me know you want the new clips, I’ll send you a new Jumperless with the updated clips and an envelope with a prepaid return label in the box, and you send the old one back at your convenience.
I’ll replace the clips on the returns when I feel like it and then donate them to various hackerspaces and whatnot. The reworked boards probably won’t be quite as pretty and they’ll technically be used (hopefully) so it doesn’t feel right to sell them normally.
Or we can skip the middleman and you just donate your old Jumperless to your local hackerspace directly, just let me know you want to do that so I don’t have to buy a return shipping label.
If you know of any hackerspaces that might want a Jumperless, post them here and I’ll try to make sure they get one.
I’ve been there with those pesky clips – they can definitely get annoying. I had a similar situation a while back when I was working on a DIY project and using some spring retainer clips for a setup. The ones I had kept slipping out of place, and it drove me crazy. I reached out to the supplier, and they sent me some upgraded versions, no questions asked.
It made such a difference, and I really appreciate your idea of sending out replacements and donating the returns. The hackerspaces could definitely put them to good use. I think I’d be down for the new clips, but I’ll also keep your offer in mind to donate directly. It’s a win-win either way!
