In this short post I will show you a very useful accessory – Rigol DL3021A 4mm Banana Jack Adapter. The stock configuration of the Rigol DL3021A uses screw terminals which are quite painful to use and are not compatible with 4mm banana plugs of course.
In the first approach I wanted to design a adapter PCB between the screw terminals and the banana jack connectors. But I thought that this solution will be more fragile when comparing to a solid CNC turned part, it will be also a worse electrical connection (higher resistance).
Because of this I have quickly designed these cylinder shaped parts that have a thread compatible with the screw terminals of the Rigol DL3021A on one side and holes for 4mm banana plugs on the other side. To be more versatile I have added the hole not only in the front of the cylinder but also on 4 sides. Because of this you can make a connection from multiple sides or simply connect multiple wires together.
I have also made a wire harness (2 load wires + 2 sense wires) to nicely fit this solution.
MCAD DESIGN & MANUFACTURING
The adapter was designed in Autodesk Inventor. Adapter was manufactured from stainless steel by PCBWAY (CNC Machining).
In the GitHub repository (MCAD folder) you can find the following files:
- Autodesk Inventor project,
- Exported STEP file,
- Exported PDF file with drawing,
The CNC machined parts look great ! – the surface finish is very good. The machining cost of two adapters is about 70 USD.
Rigol DL3021A 4mm Banana Jack Adapter – ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
