Keystone PC terminals are beautiful, beefy, and blue…

Before we start, you can throw away these tired green ones… really… I’ll wait.

Are they gone? Good. Lets kick-up the quality of the stuffs in your parts drawers a notch or seven.

I’ve been finding a lot of really great parts lately – it’s interesting to note that the lions’ share have come from companies in New York. Just sayin.

So… let’s say that you’re working on a project and you’ve got some header pins for power… or something. Vanilla headers will do the trick, but we can do better for robustness, versatility, and aesthetic.

Keystone’s modular PC terminal blocks slip over vanilla headers – easy peasey.

They’re like a dash of paprika on deviled eggs – yummy.
[ insert your favorite delicious food metaphor here if you don’t like deviled eggs ]

Can you read the details on the side? It kicks-down 16A, 300V, and will take AWG 28-16 wire.

Keystone offers a stout version that connects to headers with 5mm spacing (removing even pins of standard headers works great).

…or a 3.5mm pin spacing for retrofits. Getting one of these terminals on standard headers is a tight fit – you know what they say! When all else fails, “…use the force.”

These little guys are awesome and fit perfectly over standard pitch headers. Aren’t they sooooo cute? Ummm… I mean – FREAKING AWESOME!

Go ahead – dress up your vanilla headers.

Drop-on a terminal, insert your wires, and tighten the screws. Done.

That’s it; that’s all there is to it.

Blocks of the same model can be easily chained together for longer runs.

They are a little more expensive, but the ability to remove them from PCBs without damaging them means that they are going to pay for themselves many times over. No need to heat up your soldering iron, fire-up your rework station, or plug-in your Dremel. Just un-screw, pull it off, and put the part back in your drawer.

Keystone Modular PC Terminal Blocks are available in 3.5mm and 5mm spacing configurations. They also have a screwless push-button series as well.