The crimper in the link of post #29 does exactly one type of crimp that appears to be the same type as what is not working for the TS. BUT since I have not seen a detailed description of exactly what sort of crimp is desired, it is not clear if the linked too will work.
Unfortunately there are a very large variety of poor crimps that are not acceptable, and so the very exact probem is not so very clear.

 

The crimper in the link of post #29 does exactly one type of crimp that appears to be the same type as what is not working for the TS. BUT since I have not seen a detailed description of exactly what sort of crimp is desired, it is not clear if the linked too will work.
Unfortunately there are a very large variety of poor crimps that are not acceptable, and so the very exact probem is not so very clear.

There is no post #29, Bill. Yours is post #21.

 

Just received my PA-09 tool for JST SM pins. Works as it should, nice clean crimps compared to my SN-28B. The SM pins slide into the housing smoothly, no deformed pins. The SN28B I have works ok for the KF2510 types of connectors, but butchers the SM pins. I have a IWS-3220 tool on order as well, looks like it may do the JST SM pins properly.
Still boils down to getting the right tool for the right job.

 

There is no post #29, Bill. Yours is post #21.

OOPS!! It must have been post #20. That hydraulic crimper link post. It was the bright sun in my eyes made me goof.

 

OOPS!! It must have been post #20. That hydraulic crimper link post. It was the bright sun in my eyes made me goof.

That explains things

 

Ah - that hydraulic crimper was meant to be light hearted.

 

I use something like this:
View attachment 263165
It's hard to see from the picture, but each of the 3 openings in the jaws have two different crimp options. To do the connectors you indicated, you have to do 2 crimps. One for the wire, and another for the insulation. This is called SN-28B on Ali Express.

Your tool may have the same "feature", but I can't see it in the picture.

EDIT: these pictorial instructions imply the crimp can be done on the wire and insulation at the same time. I didn't find that reliable because the wire needs to be placed precisely to get a good crimp.
View attachment 263172
Notice that they didn't show the actual crimp because it's unlikely that all of the wire strands were in the crimp.

Thanks.
very detail.

 

It looks like you might have the right - or adequate crimper. Take one of the cut off crimped wires and insert it into the largest opening and then crimp down on it. If the crimper doesn't contact the crimp body then try the next smaller size. If that one doesn't seem to make contact then try the smallest one. If it doesn't make contact either then it is not the right crimp for that wire.

Crimping wires is just a matter of mashing the metal around the wire. HOWEVER, it's more a matter of crimping it in a way that it doesn't come loose. The crimp and wire should be matched so that you're not overloading the crimp body, sometimes called the crimp barrel. At either end of the crimp barrel there should be a "Bell Mouth", meaning a shape that leads into the crimp body without putting undue stress on the strands. The larger back portion of the crimp is the wire support. It usually holds the insulation tight without splitting it. However, there are times when it may look like it's loose. That has largely to do with the size (or thickness) of the wire insulation. Low voltage wiring often has thin insulation whereas high voltage wiring will have much heavier insulation. There's more to crimping than just mashing the metal.

One thing you don't want to do is tin the wire before crimping. Not unless you intend to reflow the solder AFTER it's crimped. Tinning before crimping can introduce more material into the crimp barrel than it is designed to handle, and can lead to fractures in the barrel. The wire may also become brittle and possibly crack. In all it's best to NOT tin the leads. However, soldering after making the crimp should pose no problem; as long as the solder doesn't wick into the crimp connection area or back into the wire. If solder makes its way into the contact area it can potentially jam the pin and break something OR it could bind the pin so tight that it's difficult to remove. Possible damage could occur when pulling a stuck pin out of a socket or vice versa. If solder wicks up the wire then the wire support crimp, the part that holds the insulation, solder could make the wire brittle and not allow it to flex. Fracture and failure are likely over some period of time, depending on how much movement the wire endures.

Thanks.

 

View attachment 263175
This crimper has an adjustment for calibration. Notice the small screw by the ratchet mechanism. You remove the screw and select one of the few detents it has. This controls how tight the jaws of the crimper close when making the crimp. In a manufacturing environment this sort of crimper needs to be calibrated for every use (daily). Weekly if all the same type crimps are going to be used. After calibrating the crimper a pull test needs to be done on the crimps. Depending on the size and type of wire and crimp there's a chart that specifies how much force the crimp must withstand at a minimum for pulling the wire out of the crimp. If it passes then the crimper is good to go.

Back in 2003 I worked for a company that made portable defibrillators. Being the new inspector on the job they kept me away because of what they feared would be a lack of experience. However, during flu season several of the inspectors were out sick and the crimps needed to be inspected. Upon looking at them for the first time I immediately stopped production. EVERY crimp could be pulled apart by pinky finger pressure. Using photo-micrograph techniques I took pictures of the obvious to me bad crimps and began teaching all the inspectors what to look for when inspecting crimps. I also trained the one and only person they trusted to make the crimps on how to calibrate and test the crimps EVERY MORNING before starting work with that or any of the other crimpers. To say the least that operator had no idea there was even a way to calibrate or a need to test.

My work went all the way up to the regional quality control manager who had to issue recall notices on over 4,000 units. The crimps were so poorly made they could easily vibrate loose bouncing around in the back of a police cruiser. The last thing anyone wanted was a failed unit when someone's life depended on it. Now - guess who got laid off! Corporate learned that I was doing the training and they assumed I had been working there years and failed to catch the error sooner. But who wants to work for a company with their heads up their crimped winky's.

Thank you ThePanMan.

 

I received my IWS-3220 tool, and it does the SM pins/sockets properly (once I select the proper sized die hole). So, the IWS-3220 does both the wire and insulation crimp at the same time, whereas the PA-09 tool does one at a time. I find it easier to use the PA-09 tool, as I can see where the wire sits in the pin a lot better than with the IWS-3220. But, both work. Just a question of how many wires one has to do. The PA-09 is ok for a few wires. If doing many connectors/pin, the IWS tool will save some time.
The SN-28B does not work properly with JST SM connectors. It is ok for KF2510 (sockets for pin headers on PCB). I suspect it might be ok for Dupont pins as well, only because the KF2510 socket pins look similar.

 

Somebody's review on the internet persuaded me that the Iwiss IWS-2820M was a good tool for the "Dupont" style crimps. So I got one from Aliexpress, but haven't tried it out yet.