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I have these 3 wires coming from a servo motor. They're very thin and flimsy and despise staying in a breadboard.

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Is it possible to add headers to these wires to make them easier to put in a breadboard? (Like the attached image) And if so, where would one procure such a thing?

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  • The easiest solution is to put some solder on the wires to make them stiff. They usually become slightly larger than the hole, so maybe you'd better cut some of the copper wires before applying solder on them. Another solution is to solder some male pins, but again they are a bit larger than common breadboard holes – frarugi87 Mar 11 '16 at 10:53
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What I do in situations like that is get some of those breadboard hookup wires, like you have in your second photo, cut them in the middle (giving yourself two wires, each with a bare end, and a end with a plug on them).

Strip the bare end, and then solder it to the servo motor wires. Before commencing soldering, slip some heat-shrink tubing onto the wire. Once the wires are soldered together, move the heat-shrink tubing over the join and shrink it (with a hair-dryer, or heat gun).

You now have a plug for your breadboard which is designed to be mechanically strong, and the heat-shrink tubing over the join protects it from being flexed too much.

You could put some thicker heat-shrink over all three wires, to give additional stability.

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  • If you do not have a hair-dryer or heat gun, you could use a lighter, but it's not recommended :) – Paul Mar 11 '16 at 11:41
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    You might even get away with some "screw-connectors" or a "wire nut" of you don't have an soldering iron. And probably electrical tape (or just reasonable tape) if you don't have heat-shrink tubing (but you should have some :D) – Paul Mar 11 '16 at 11:45
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I have bought a crimping tool. With the correct dice and crimps and crimp holders you get a professional finish. The crimps and crimp holders themselves are cheap (buy in multiples of 100) but the crimping tool and dice are expensive. It takes some practise before you make "high quality good contacting crimp" connections. You need to crimp in such a way that the strength comes from the connection between the wire insulation and the crimp and not loose electrical contact.

Also it is not so easy to find the "correct" crimps and crimp holders.
So this is only an option if you are willing to invest in your hobby (or you know someone who has ;-) )

If it is a DIY job I would go with nick solution.

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