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small cable connector

I'm thinking of putting a photodiode and a preamp in a small machined block, one cubic inch or so. It will need a cable with three or preferably four wires plus shield back to the digitizer box. I guess I could solder the cable to the board, but that's inelegant.

So I'd like a really small connector pair, PCB end and cable end. Mini-SLRs are a bit big, stick out pretty far, and Lemos are expensive and confusing.

Digikey lists 155,386 circular connectors.

Anybody got a favorite, really small 3 or 4-pin connector?

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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
Reply to
John Larkin
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Oh, you must be missing a few then.

Here, Farnell have 246,291

There you go, pick one of those. Problem solved :)

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John Devereux
Reply to
John Devereux

M8 connectors might be a possibility. They're quite popular for industrial sensors.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward" 
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Take a look at Mini-XLR

Switchcraft has some PCB TH mount and SMT mount connectors.

Reply to
tm

Yeah, those look cool, multi-sourced, cable assemblies available. Thanks.

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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
Reply to
John Larkin

How about an FFC plus a bit of copper tape backing?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
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ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
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hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net
Reply to
Phil Hobbs

I assumed that's what he meant by "Mini-SLR". ;-)

(Though if you're thinking of a mini-SLR, a Fuji X100s ought to be on the list to look at- what a gorgeous rangefinder gadget with retro appearance).

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
Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

looks like they are just as "big" as mini xlr, there's also an M5 size

formatting link

or if you can live with the potential short when inserting, how about micro jack? 2.5 or 3.5 mm with four pins

-Lasse

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

Hmmm, maybe micro-USB is a candidate. Tiny, 4+shield, cheap.

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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
Reply to
John Larkin

From the cheap consumer electronics side of the fence...

2.5mm 4 conductor plug and PCB mount jack: Molded cables available cheap and everywhere. Make sure that the preamp power source can handle a momentary short as the plug is inserted. If there's any rotational movement of the plug, you may see some noise on the output. That might make right angle connectors a bad idea. 
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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Some usb thing? (We use a lot of Hirose connectors, but they are big and clunky... Perfect for me! :^)

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

I'd go for the mini-XLR. Too many things have microusb on them. Who know what this thing will get connected to accidentally.

Oh, and I suspect Lemo can supply a good connector.

Reply to
miso

I was over at a German supplier a while ago, and they were showing me a new product they'd designed. They were using a high density Lemo- I asked what he thought of them. After rattling off a whole bunch of things that were bad, "but they were the only ones that would do the job".

They're nice connectors and all that, but that comes at a price, and not just the parts- lead time etc. Try to source a M9-0.6 tap, for example.

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
Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Some of their medical-grade circular connectors cost kilobucks each.

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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
Reply to
John Larkin

Yeah, the Lemo line was put there for entertainment. There are Lemo imitators, But there is little difference between 100x overpriced and

80x overpriced.

I still like the mini-XLR, especially if you are going to wire this up by hand. Plus it is a connector designed for low level signals, though not high impedance as in your situation. I have a DC calibrator that uses the full size XLR on the low voltage output.

Reply to
miso

Switchcraft TA4FL?

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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