Male headers and female connectors

Hi,

I have spent several days bashing my head against the wall. All I want to do is to have male header pins, either as integrated into an existing Arduino shield, or the break off variety soldered to strip board. I then want to attach a female header connector to the male pins. The back of the female connector is then wired to a servo or sensor. Not a big deal you would think. Hah!

Here are the problems I have had, mostly so far with the stripboard version:
The standard male header pins will not do the job because a male pin can only connect to one female socket.
A female socket appears to be able to swallow as many male connectors as it likes and will do so totally if the male connectors are located at the same x and y, regardless of z.
A female connector cannot be plugged onto a male, you have to bring the male to female, so to speak. If that is the same for when I start to do the shields, that will be a major issue.

Here’s what I have achieved:


To do this I have had to create a custom male header with two y staggered male pins, one for up, one for down, at each connection point. Similarly for the female plug. I placed the female plug over the stripboard, then slipped the male header between the plug and the stripboard. Any other way, you get the board connected or the plug, but not both.

There must be an easier way??? Should I make a feature request, but what for?

I know I can use small pieces of wire in some cases to bridge the gaps, but I would like a ‘clean’ solution. I’ve a number of parts to post, like the Dagu servo (done) and the DFRobot sensor shield and Dagu Commotion shield (in progress). I would like them to work for other folk with the minimum of fuss.

Now you have me bashing my head against the wall. I suppose Fritzing is designed so you can plug male pins into female header and then drag them both around with the female header. You can plug male parts to the breadboard then drag the breadboard around with all parts attached.

You can connect the wires from your servo to the 3-pin connector before the connector is attache to the breadboard. That way the female sockets on the breadboard won’t swallow the wires up. Then drag the connector on the the breadboard and you will get the same results without the double male pin header thing-a-ma-gig… The wires will stay connect to the connector and the connector will connect to the breadboard.

btw, nice job on the servo…

Thanks, the servo took some patience.
I thought I had tried that already! Only now when I try the standard connectors it works??
I think the problem I have been having is this: the standard standalone connectors are all configured male. in Fritzing male is not male and female is not female. Instead:
Male = single connection;
Female = multiple connections in one.
I think someone has been watching too much of the ‘wrong’ kind of online content!

I noticed that… both male and female connectors have male pins… I suppose that may be so that both can plug into the breadboard.