PinHeaderClip Configurator

What is PinHeaderClip?

Female pin header connectors - the small black plastic housings (often called Dupont connectors, jumper wire housings, or crimp housings) that plug onto 2.54 mm (0.1″) male pin headers - are notoriously loose. There's no real latch holding them on. A light tug on the wires, vibration from a fan or motor, or just routing the cable the wrong way is enough for the connector to work partway off the pins, causing an intermittent or dead connection.

That's a common headache on 3D printers, robots, RC vehicles, drones, and any project that moves, vibrates, or gets handled. PinHeaderClip is a free, parametric, 3D-printable clip that solves it: a small bridge-shaped part with a fork-shaped foot at each end that snaps around the base of the male pin header, on either side of the female connector, pinning the whole housing down against the board so it can't lift, wiggle loose, or get pulled off by wire tension.

How to use the generator

1. Set "Number of Pins" to match the width of your connector (how many pins across).
2. Set "Length between PCB bottom and Female Pin Header Top" - measure this on your assembled board. Click the (i) icon next to the field for a diagram of exactly what to measure. This tells the clip how tall it needs to be to reach from the underside of the PCB up to the top of your female header.
3. Optional - "More options" for less common setups:
   • Pin-header rows - switch to 2 rows for a double-row (2×N) header; the fork tines get twice as deep to reach both rows.
   • Offset - extra tine length if your pin header sits set back from the PCB edge.
   • Close one foot - turns one end into a solid stop instead of an open channel, so the clip only slides on from one side and can't slip off the other end.
   • Pad outer tines to full width - keeps the two end tines the same width as the shared middle tines when generating multiple channels side by side.
4. Click "Download STL" and slice it.

Recommended print settings

PETG is recommended over PLA. It's a little more flexible and layer-adhesive, which matters here - the fork tines need to flex slightly to snap over the pin header without cracking. PLA is more brittle and more likely to snap off a thin tine under that stress.

A 0.4 mm nozzle works fine for this part; a smaller 0.2-0.3 mm nozzle will give slightly crisper detail on the small fork and slot features if you have one on hand. The clip prints flat on its back with the forks facing up, so no supports are needed.

Source & more detail

PinHeaderClip is open source. The parametric OpenSCAD model (clipsingle.scad) and this configurator's source are on GitHub.