What does pitch mean in connectors?
Pitch in connectors, is the distance between the centers of two neighboring pins or contacts in the same row. Size A in the following pictures is the pitch of the connector.
Single Row Connector
Dual Row Connector
Pitch is an important attribute of connectors. 2.54 mm pitch means the distance between the centers of two neighboring pins or contacts in the same row is 2.54 mm.
Common connector pitches are 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm, 1.25 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.0 mm, 2.54 mm, and 3.0 mm.
How do you measure pitch on JST connectors?
You can measure the pitch of connectors with a vernier caliper.
It’s not easy for you to measure the distance between the centers of two neighboring circuits in the same row, as you can’t tell if you are placing the jaws on the vernier caliper in the centers. But we don’t necessarily measure the centers to get the pitch of a connector.
Let’s see how!
Measure the pitch of a connector housing.
For a connector housing, you can measure the edges on the same side of the two holes instead. For instance, measure “B” instead of “A” in the following picture. B = A, so B is the pitch of the connector housing.
Or a connector housing with multiple circuits, you can measure the distance of the two farthest circuits (size “C” in the following picture), and divide it by (number of circuits – 1). For example, the following is a 6-circuits connector housing. You can divide C by 5, the result is the pitch of the connector housing.
Measure the pitch of a connector header.
For a connector header, you can measure the outer size of two neighboring contacts, and then deduct the width of the contact. For example the connector header on the following picture, the pitch is calculated as B deduct W (pitch = B – W).
If the connector is small and with multiple circuits, you can measure the distance of the number of contacts, deduct the width of the contact, and then divide it by [number of contacts – 1].
For example, the pitch of the connector header in the following picture is (C-W)/4.
