Cheap Mini Banana Plugs

Hi all,

I picked up these mini banana plugs off of eBay for an unrelated project a bit ago. They're approximately 3mm in diameter and cost less than 20¢ per pair. Maybe they would work for the Logic Gate game?

20 Pairs Male and Female 3.0mm Bullet Banana Plug Connectors Golden for ESC | eBay

COMPACT over 9 years ago

I see you want to bite some bullets.

Unripe banana plugs are green, ripe banana plugs are yellow, rotten banana plugs are black , orange banana plugs have had too much beta-carotene and red banana plugs are sunburnt.
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makerkaren over 9 years ago

Ben was hoping to get plugs that could be purchased for a few cents a piece, so those might still be too much. Something else to consider would be, if this is a product to be taken to market, rather than a one-off, a reliable supplier would need to be used, and eBay isn't typically that reliable or at least consistent.
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cabi24 over 9 years ago in reply to makerkaren

You could use springs like in the old Electronic Projects Lab toys.
That would enable you to use cheap wire and the real cost would be the springs.

SparkFun used to have some: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/11822

You can order Springs from a supplier, but you would need to order a ton to make it worth it. Obviously this would scale well, but wouldn't be worth it just to buy 100... (source of img is acxesspring.com)
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bryhaley over 9 years ago in reply to makerkaren

Ah, I see. Do consider, though, 20c/pair is the retail price - if it ends up getting taken to market he'll probably be working with a supplier and ordering in large quantities, so a lower price could be negotiated. I've seen as low as 10c/pair from suppliers on alibaba just with a quick preliminary search. These 3mm plugs actually seem to be produced by a bunch of manufacturers, so finding a supplier shouldn't be too hard; The ebay link was just what I specifically ordered, not a suggestion on where to get it from (except for prototyping purposes perhaps) :v

I guess it all depends on what kind of quantities you'd expect to produce these in if you launch a kickstarter. They're definitely more ideal than standard headers; if ya need any info (more accurate measurements, how easily they plug in or unplug, or anything like that) lemme know!
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