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Connector & Harness Guide

Two connector families cover the whole cockpit: Molex Mini-Fit Jr for power and the main bus, JST-XH for signal and switch wiring. Nothing smaller than 2.54 mm pitch is used anywhere, and wiring is 24 AWG throughout.

Molex Mini-Fit Jr (4.2 mm) — main bus + LED power

Carries the inter-board bus (CAN + power) and the LED backlight power on every board. Through-hole, vertical, polarized (one insertion orientation). Crimp tool: JRready ST6490-ACT.

Main bus — 2×4 (8-pin)

Connector_Molex:Molex_Mini-Fit_Jr_5566-08A2_2x04_P4.20mm_Vertical. Two identical connectors per MCU board (J_BUS_IN + J_BUS_OUT) — the bus passes straight through. (5566 = vertical PCB header; the mating cable side is the 5557 receptacle housing — see the wiring/harness notes.)

Pin Signal Notes
1 +12V always-on 12 V from PSU
2 +12V parallel with pin 1 — lowers connector resistance for LED current
3 +5V from PSU; 3.3 V generated locally
4 GND
5 CANH differential pair with pin 6
6 CANL differential pair with pin 5
7 GND
8 GND

CANH/CANL share a row (pins 5/6) for clean differential routing.

LED power — 2-pin (1×2)

Connector_Molex:Molex_Mini-Fit_Jr_5566-02A2_2x01_P4.20mm_Vertical. One per lighting zone, separate from the signal harness:

Pin Signal
1 BACKLIGHT_SW_RETURN (MOSFET drain — near GND when LEDs on)
2 +12V_BACKLIGHT (always-on 12 V to the LED string tops)

JST-XH (2.54 mm) — signal + switch harnesses

Intra-group wiring — MCU ↔ breakout (I²C, interrupts, analog) and switch harnesses. Through-hole, single-row, vertical, polarized. Rated 3 A/pin. Crimp tool: Engineer PA-09. Standard sizes 4 / 6 / 8 pin — pick by pin count, leave no pins empty.

Standard 6-pin signal harness:

Pin Signal
1 SDA
2 SCL
3 GND
4 GND
5 3.3 V (chip power)
6 spare

Breakouts with analog outputs or interrupts use the 8-pin variant with extra signals on pins 6–8. Switches share a common GND within each connector group (one GND pin per connector).

LED power is never on the signal harness

Backlight power always rides its own 2-pin Mini-Fit Jr connector — never mixed into the JST-XH signal harness.