TC2050-IDC-NL · 10-pin Cable, No Legs, Smallest Footprint

Short description

Ten-pin debug and programming cable with spring pins, without legs — the smallest debug access a board can have: ten contact pads and three holes, nothing else. At the other end a standard 2.54 mm (0.1″) ribbon header.

Connections

Pin assignment: contact n is on connector pin n — the cable is wired straight through.

Compatible: programmers with a 10-pin 2.54 mm pin header — among them PEmicro Multilink and Cyclone, and the Intel/Altera USB-Blaster.

Not, or not directly, compatible

• 10-pin, 2 × 5, 1.27 mm (0.05″) — Cortex connector, e.g. Keil ULINK2: TC2050-IDC-NL-050-ALL
• 20-pin, 2 × 10, 2.54 mm (0.1″) — ARM connector, e.g. SEGGER J-Link, Keil ULINK, ST-LINK/V2: through the adapter board COLL-ARM20-10-IDC, TC2050-ARM2010
• 12-pin — Lattice HW-USBN-2B: through the adapter board TC-LATTICE-10
• 14-pin, 2 × 7, 1.27 mm (0.05″) — STDC14, e.g. ST-LINK V3: TC2050-IDC-NL-050-STDC14
• 14-pin, 2 × 7, 2 mm — Xilinx Platform Cable II: through the adapter board TC2050-XILINX
• 14-pin, 2 × 7, 2.54 mm (0.1″) — Renesas E1 / E2 / E8a / E20: through the adapter board TC-RENESAS
• 14-pin, 2 × 7, 2.54 mm (0.1″) — TI MSP-FET430: TC2050-IDC-NL-430

New to the ten-pin family? Then the kit

If you are starting out with the ten-pin Tag-Connect family, have a look at our reduced-price TC2050 Evaluation Kit: this cable together with the adapter board to the 20-pin ARM header, clip and grip to compare, a protective cap and a demo board with all footprints — everything you need for your first own footprint.

What this cable is for

Two cases. First, production: place, flash, pull — the shortest cycle there is, and no part on the board. Second, boards where the latch holes do not fit or neighbouring components are in the way.

Do I have to hold it? Programming by hand: yes, and a thumb does for those few seconds. For longer sessions, no — the TC2050-CLIP-3PACK grips the three alignment pins from the underside of the board and locks the cable. It holds harder than the legs and costs not a single extra hole. As an alternative the GRIP-10 grips the same pins but is made of polymer: no risk of shorting on the underside, at slightly lower holding force.

What to put on your board

• 10 contact pads, Ø 0.787 mm, 1.27 mm pitch, two rows 2.54 mm apart
• 3 holes Ø 0.991 mm for the alignment pins — no latch holes
• No tracks and no vias in the keep-out area between the pads
• No solder paste on the pads
• No other signal closer than 0.5 mm to a contact pad
• No finger clearance needed, unlike the legged version

Here too: the alignment holes may be plated and used as vias, and the footprint belongs in the BOM as DNL ("Do Not Load") so your assembler does not order a part for it.

How it differs from the legged version

Same electronics, same footprint pattern, same header at the debugger. Only the hold differs: TC2050-IDC latches into four holes and stays by itself, but needs those holes and room for two fingers beside them. Which one you need is decided by your board, not your debugger.

The numbering

Same footprint, same count as on the TC2050-IDC: bottom row 1 to 5, top row 10 to 6 — so the positions do not match those on the IDC header, while the signal numbers do. The table and the typical JTAG assignment are on that page; the reason for the break under Connector numbering.

From prototype to series — one and the same footprint

The contact pads are designed for spring pins; the same technique works in the test fixtures of series production. In manufacturing this pays off twice: the no-legs footprint needs ten pads and three holes, stays free of components and can be reused in the fixture — one pattern for programming, debugging and production test.

The service interface nobody sees

No connector on the board also means none to see from the outside. Many devices therefore carry the contact pads as a service interface — the technician has the cable in the case and installs new firmware on site, without handing the owner the idea of plugging something in. In this role the no-legs version plays to its strength: it needs neither latch holes nor finger clearance and therefore fits on a densely populated device board.

A standard, not a one-off

The footprint is published and available in the common layout tools. If another cable is needed, it is ordered — with an article number, from German stock. No one-off that exists exactly once and whose pinout no one remembers.

Technical data

• Connectors: Plug-of-Nails™ spring pins to 2.54 mm (0.1″) ribbon
• Version: no legs (NL), three alignment pins
• Spring pins: rated for over 100,000 operations (manufacturer)
• Clip: TC2050-CLIP-3PACK (separate)

In use with these devices

ST-LINK/V2 and STLINK-V3SET (ST STM32) · SEGGER J-Link (ARM Cortex) · Keil (ARM) ULINK · PEmicro Multilink and Cyclone · Intel/Altera USB-Blaster · Xilinx Platform Cable · TI XDS100v2 · Renesas E1/E2/E8a/E20 · Silicon Labs USB Debug Adapter

What counts is the connector, not the device name: compare the connector on your device with the table above. If it carries a different one, the route goes through an adapter board.

Debuggers with the classic 20-pin ARM header — J-Link, Keil ULINK and many older tools — connect through our adapter board COLL-ARM20-10-IDC.

Variants

TC2050-IDC — with legs, for the workbench. TC2050-IDC-NL-050-ALL — 1.27 mm header, all ten pins. TC2030-IDC-NL — six pins, if SWD is enough.

Included

The cable only. Debugger and clip are not included.