JST XH or JST PH connectors

[amchagas]

During a recent workshop @roaldarbol has brought up the point that Adafruit uses a very similar connector to the one we are using in BeeHive, and that perhaps we could re-evaluate the benefits of changing our connector to gain compatibility with Adafruit systems.

Namely we use JST-XH and adafruit uses JST-PH.

The main difference between the two is pitch size and therefore connector size. PH is smaller than XH, but NOT to the point where it would be impossible to solder by hand... The most important issue of using PH is that it is rated for lower voltages and currents.

So the question is whether our system requires the rating provided by XH (now and in a potential future), and if there is a lot of benefit to having a Adafruit compatible system.

[roaldarbol]

Just found that DFRobot's Gravity system also uses JST-PH for all their components. Not all are 4-pin, but all of their I2C compatible devices are (https://www.dfrobot.com/topic-282.html). Is I2C (and possibly SPI) accessible currently, or have you considered it yet?

[roaldarbol]

On the other hand I think that Adafruit actually uses JST-SH (the smaller one) for most of their breakout boards, but they do also sell JST-SH to PH cables. They have PH where the smaller one isn't feasible.

[amchagas]

SH connectors are unfortunately only SMD and take only up to 1 amp power... I think for those reasons, we want to avoid it... as the whole system so far is through hole and some applications require more than 1 amp of power...

PH connectors on the other hand do have through hole options. and can take a bit more power