A common request we get in Applications Engineering is for ‘Dupont’ connectors, which are popular for hobby use in small electronics due to their compact size, easy use, and ubiquitous nature. Unfortunately ‘Dupont’ is a brand name rather than an industry standardized term, and this can make locating similar connectors on Digi-Key’s website frustrating if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Much like the infamous case of “The Molex Connector”, there’s no specific industry term that calls out Dupont connectors and only Dupont connectors. The style people commonly think of as ‘Dupont’ is a vairation of rectangular connector characterized by a very low vertical profile, black coloration, and a 2.54mm standard pitch. The easiest way to find the ballpark these devices reside in is in our Free Hanging, Panel Mount | Rectangular Connectors | Electronic Components Distributor DigiKey category, then apply the following filters:
PITCH: 2.54mm
NUMBER OF ROWS: 1
MOUNTING TYPE: Free-Hanging (In-Line)
This gets you to the basic structure of a ‘Dupont’ connector. They do sometimes come in dual-row varieties, but those are a more complex search - for now we’re going to focus on the basic, single-row types common to hobby electronics.
Next, select your fastening type - or rather, your lack of a fastening type.
Dupont connectors are most notable for their slim profile, which most achieve by not having any retention save friction. This filter is what will get you closest to the style usually intended when one is search for ‘the Dupont connector’.
Finally, just to drive it home, you can filter for color, as the black color is fairly universal to this style of connector. Normally color is completely inconsequential to electrical performance, but in this specific case filtering away other colors actually helps eliminate series that are close but not quite what we need.
Once we’ve done all of this, we arrive at a table of search results that looks something like this:
Success! Note that two series in particular jump to the start of the list - Molex’s SL 70400 series and TE’s AMPMODU MTE series. These are both good quick-and-dirty shortcuts for finding ‘Dupont’-style parts quickly, but they’re not the only options, nor is this the only method of finding them or the only place where they can be found.
If you’re looking for a different type of Dupont connector, or are having trouble figuring out which filters to use in which categories to try and find what you need, don’t hesitate to ask for help! Digi-Key applications technicians can always help you get a bead on the parts you need.
I hope this helps demystify this often confusing connector search for you, and happy hobbying!