Favourite small multipin connectors

miniDIN is the main contender. I hate soldering to those nubs, though, that are the only cable-side offering. No solder-pocket, nor crimp. Generally, I make a wire coil, drop it around the nub, and try to stab my leadwire through the coil, then solder the whole mess. Sometimes I lap the wire and the nub and try to lash it in place with a slender wire, and solder that.

I'm using and mis-using double density headers quite a lot, such as Harwin M50 series, Samtec FTSH, SFMH - there is a variety of connectors which mate with each other and make it possible to build setups module by module, a bit like Lego bricks. They also mate nicely with prefabricated ribbon cables such as Samtec FFSD (which work in mK temperatures, too). It sounds like you're looking for panel connectors, however, for which the DD headers are not so good. We used in the past panel connectors by the Franz Binder company, at least Farnell carries them. They are a bit like LEMOs, not quite as high precision, but not as expensive either.

For fast signals we've used recently simply RJ45's - they are differential, impedance controlled, and it is convenient to use widely available prefabricated Ethernet cables with them. RJ45's are rather bulky, unfortunately.

Regards, Mikko

A lemo for only $15? That's not bad. We use a lot of Hirose connectors. The RM series has a nice feel and a lock. But perhaps too big.

George H.

how about mini xlr ?

-Lasse

Enclosure-mounted receptacles? Try the AMP circular plastic connectors unless you need to go MIL-spec or medical. Something like their panel mount CPC series?

Also catalog at

Connectors are the bane of my existence, an existential nightmare. There are bazillions of them, mostly crappy, often awkward to use with drawings that are hard to read, expensive with long lead times. What's not to like? EVERYTHING!

I'm just venting because of delays in production because of a connector I am forced to use. I have a choice of four vendors, three of which have 2700 piece minimums and 12 week lead times. The fourth has 1000 piece minimum with a still unknown lead time. I may be able to live with that, just not a full, rich life. lol

Actually the big headache has been an AKM part that I designed in. I may well never do that again. AKM just doesn't seem to give a crap...

So back to your issue. Why is $15 a problem? Is this something you use in volume?

I find I don't care for connectors that stick straight out of equipment. It is too easy to bump it and cause a broken cable or worse, connector inside the chassis. Of course this is a bigger problem with commercial stuff like USB connectors or the power plug on a laptop. It just seems logical to me to angle that guy at 90 degrees so that the cord and body of the connector aren't a big lever arm just begging to be snapped off.

The Lemo stuff I've seen doesn't really have this problem. Unless you hit it with a hammer it can be bumped and won't break. How many times does this have to save you to be worth the $15?

--

Rick

I tried to make a list of RF coax connectors... BNC, TNC, N, SMA...

I got to about 70 and quit.

Some of the bigger LEMOs go for $3000 or so.

You might consider ranting about connector catalogs, too. We could buy more AMP stuff, if there web site weren't so bad.

--

John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com 

Precision electronic instrumentation 
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators 
Custom laser drivers and controllers 
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links 
VME thermocouple, LVDT, synchro   acquisition and simulation

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I was looking for a lemo connector (for an ultrasonic transducer). I wanted to get the signal into the bnc 'world'. I gave up trying to identify it in the lemo catalog, and for ~$70 each I wasn't going to take a chance. (I'm pretty sure I was on the right page. :^) Fortunately I could get to the signal inside the electronics box.

We use a Hirose 8 pin jobber with a screw down collar for a noise LN2 probe. The shield is the ground and the connector shield is part of the signal chain. So far it works just fine... (More EMI gets in via the SS tube in the probe.)

George H.

Oh and if you want to complain about connectors try for vacuum tight.

I've been using some of the M8 connectors- popular for sensors, but I don't think they're that much cheaper than Lemos, and they don't look as Swiss-expensive nice.

Where the environment is benign, RJ-45 connectors can be attractive since you can get four twisted shielded pairs for next to no dollars, and they're gold-to-gold contacts.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward" 
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com 
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Mini-DIN? If you use the S-video kind, you can even get cables that (theoretically) have two individually shielded conductors at 7 PM on Sunday. No positive retention. The chances are IMHO lower that somebody will try to plug their DVD player or TV set into it, but stranger things have happened.

One thing I have found with some mini-DIN plugs and jacks is that they don't *feel* like they're going to stay in when mated, even if they do. The distance the plug moves from the point where it first gets hard to push, to where the plug bottoms out, is very short, which does not give confidence.

3.5mm (1/8") (3.5mm) or 2.5 mm (3/32") jacks? Everyone+dog has 2- and 3-conductor versions of these - right angle, even. If you need 4 conductors, you can find it if you look. You can also hack a consumer cable for access if required. Downsides are no positive retention, and possibly that people will try to plug earbuds, cell phone headsets, etc into them. If it's an output from your box, a really clever person might try to plug in a Y cable to run two things from one output.

There is a "micro-D" connector that I've seen used before but I don't really like it. (The dash is critical; otherwise you have a "micro D ribbon", which is Ye Olde Parallel Port.) The panel side has pins, and the cable side has sockets that sort of float around in the shell; the sockets aren't totally surrounded by plastic like a regular D-sub. I didn't manage to bend one in a few years of using a cable with them, but it never gave me a good feeling. Also, they are pretty much only available on the far side of an overnight air shipment; they aren't used on consumer anything as far as I know, and you can't get them at Rat Shock. They do have jackscrews for positive retention, and they are available in similar pin counts as regular D-sub connectors.

I like the two-part terminal blocks a lot for cases where you have to deal with lots of field wiring.

It makes a little bit of a difference if you are handling line-level analog audio vs. handling data at 1.21 gigabits vs. charging forklift batteries. It also changes from the bench to the beach to the airplane. :)

Matt Roberds

There's a Lemo knock off out there...

Cheers

One of those guys is trying to get 80% of the Lemo price for a Chinese knock-off in smallish quantities. No thanks.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward" 
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com 
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Are any of these cheap?

I have a stash of 8-pin Lemo pairs I got from a surplus shop that marked them as microphone connectors. Something like a buck or two each. I wiped them out of course. The problem is I hate to waste them and just use DINs for home brew stuff.

The suggestion for mini-XLR is a good one.

The Micro-B USB connector is pretty nice, and USB cables are nice shielded pairs, good for diff analog or LVDS and such. The ideal cable would be micro-B on both ends, but I haven't found any so far, so one is stuck with the big ole A type on one end.

--

John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    

Precision electronic instrumentation 
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators 
Custom timing and laser controllers 
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links 
VME  analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer 
Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators