Ferrules
/ferrules. They enable easy connection of thin wires to terminal blocks
What are ferrules some of you may ask – no they are not the undesirable neighbours that play loud music and park old cars in front of your house; they are called “feral”…
A ferrule is a small electrical connector that comes in a variety of different sizes that is very handy when connecting electrical wires. The metal needle of the ferrule is hollow allowing you to fit the correctly sized wire for maximum connectivity and faithful conductivity.
Solid Connection
1mm red ferrules connected to a terminal block
Building a simulator involves the connection of a multitude of wires to interface cards, power supplies, terminal blocks and other electronic components. Having a method to easily secure wires that ensures reliability is a great asset.
Whilst you can solder wires to the above items, it is often necessary to remove a wire for testing purposes or to add an additional function to the connection. Twisting and clamping the wire beneath the screws or under a screw tab while functional is far from tidy, and eventually the wire will become damaged with loose wire strands.
Loose and damaged wires can translate to poor connectivity leading to frustration when something does not work correctly.
A ferrule can easily be attached to the end of a small wire (22 gauge) and crimped. The ferrule needle can then be cut to size to fit into an interface card or terminal block. Ferrules come in a variety of colour-coded sizes and can be used for differing wire gauges.
A special crimper tool is used to crimp' the ferrule in place securing the wire.
I’ll submit that ferrules are not suitable to use everywhere; however, for certain applications they are useful to have in your simulator-building toolkit.
