Making the serial connection

I have two wansview NC541/W that I use for hacking. For my serial to usb conversion I use a USB to serial UART FTDI interface Board to interface between the camera and the computer (http://tinyurl.com/3prs2c5). The camera's serial connector had no header installed so I just solder tacked the leands as needed. However, going back and forth between the cameras was tiresome and would eventually damage the solder pads, so I decided to make a better connection arrangement. The camera's four serial header pads have 2mm spacing, which is not typical. I ended up ordering from a Chinese eBay supplier, a lifetime supply of "2mm 40 Pin Male Single Row Pin Header Strips", which I can easily snap into 4-pin units. I soldered a 4-pin unit into each camera's serial connector pads. To connect between the camera and the FTDI serial adapter, I used breadboard jumper wires from Gravitech. I selected the Male/Female version but I now see that if I had ordered the Female/Female version then no soldering would have been required. See http://www.gravitech.us/juwipaffq24.html
The female end is designed to tightly slip over header pins, making a good, but temporary electrical connection. I bent the camera ends of the jumper cables at 90-degrees to fit the bottom clearance.

Hi,

there are two more options I regularly use for these purpose:

a) I wire a 3.5mm female stereo connector to the pcb that I mount to the housing of the device. So I can use my standard "serial cable" where I fitted a 3.5mm stereo jack for use with most of my devices.

b) I just use standard 2.54 mm spaced, one inch length pin strip. If inserted deeeply in the 2mm spaced holes, it gives a pretty good and easily removable contact.

schufti