Electrodes, connections and compatibility

[TheHenchmen]

As many users here build their own estim units, electrodes and kits for stimming, I´m wondering how you are resolving the following problem.

What is your standard for connections? Currently, I have a wired mix of plugs and connectors, some of them fail too much for my liking.

1. 4mm banana jacks, utilized as main connection to my stim box and as plug-in connection into my urethal plug.

2. 2.6mm mini jacks, utilized as females/sockets in my power box and male plugs with secondary socket in my electrodes. These things are currently my bane as they are not that reliable.

3. 3.5mm button connectors on pads. Self explanatory, pads are consumables and cost next to nothing

4. 2mm mini jacks on propietary electrodes. I don´t use these a lot, but I´m wondering If I should ditch the 2.6mm jacks and use 2mm everywhere.

The problem is the following:
- I need the 3.5mm button connectors, but can´t use them for anything besides the pads or the long urethal sound. I can´t get them as stand alone parts, so I always need to solder/fit them to the rest of the system.
- I would like to join electrodes together, thus the electrodes need a male/female combination plug
- the plugs must not become loose. Even when I´m shaking. Especially when I´m shaking.


What are you using to link your electrodes?

[Electro]

Based on your numbering system. I have never used 1, 2, or 3.

I have only ever used wire and wire with 2mm pins used for proprietary stuff like TENS pads and a low cost insertable I use and am happy with.

For everything else, I've cut a length of wire I thought was appropriate and permanently connected it to the electrode. Most of my electrodes are 3D printed out of conductive PLA now and I make them thick enough to have enough flex in order to be not be loose when flaccid, but not feel very tight when hard. Since it's easier to not deal with a socket and pin, I just splay the wire out a bit and use a cheap low wattage sacrificial soldering iron to push a splayed out wire into the print with the tip making sure all of the wire is buried on the conductive plastic. The conductive plastic is expensive, $50 for .5kg, related to other filaments, but cheaper than other electrodes like conductive loops, but the ability to customize the shape and size for best fit is really nice. Biggest disadvantages are that it's probably not a good idea to be used as an insertable and it takes a bit of printing before the stray black stops coming out of the nozzle, sometimes up to 10 grams of filament printing something else before it's clear. .. haven't broken down and bought cleaning filament because I can usually find something functional to print that I don't care if it looks like a zebra.

Back to the original topic - If you like the button pads, keep using those, but there are plenty of 2mm socket ones too. On the stim box side, I connect wires with Wago Lever Nuts. I originally used screw terminals but my wires were constantly breaking and swapping wires was a pain, I swapped to the Lever Nuts (I often call them Lever Locks) and I no longer break wires. In between that I was using bullet connectors from the hardware store, but even with a proper splice, I'd get broken wires.

[throwawayacct]

I have an original BT with 4mm banana outputs as well as the 3.5mm jacks.

I found the small gauge wires for the 3.5mm are too fragile for my use, and small breaks in the insulation or wires was causing jumps and shocks. So I went with heavier duty, stackable banana plugs and haven't had any problems for 2 years. It's eliminated the need for splitters - I can just stack a second cable instead.

I hardwire my electrodes - all conductive rubber with a copper core, the core is soldered to a pigtail female connector. Super durable, allows for lower profile in design, and makes changing up connections a lot simpler.

Only issue with the banana plugs and HD wires is that they don't pack down as small, takes up more space. I'm a little less portable, that's all.