Two (three?) pin, inline power connectors

Don-

One possibility is Anderson Power Pole connectors. The 15 to 45 Amp size is readily available in red and black from Ham Radio suppliers, and is also made in other colors. Larger sizes are available for up to 3/0 wire and 350 Amps.

Individual connectors are "genderless", and can be combined in different configurations for multiple contact connectors.

Fred

XLR?

I was going to say that. Cheap and very reliable.

Two-pin "trailer" connectors? These are sometimes also called "SAE" connectors. Basically, male and female bullet connectors in a single rubber/vinyl mold.

Related to the above, if you only need two circuits, you can use something like 1/4" push-ons, or bullet connectors, and install a male and a female on one half of each connection.

Delphi (ex GM) "Weatherpack" connectors are probably more sealed up than you need, but lots of places sell kits of them. They are easily available with 1 to 6 circuits.

There is a two-circuit connector used in a lot of Japanese cars that is basically two 0.25" push-ons in a single nylon housing in a "T" shape. I don't know the official name of this connector.

Neutrik Speakon connectors? Originally made for loudspeakers, and available in 2, 4 and 8 circuits. I have seen 2 and 4 circuits out in the world, but never 8. One possible drawback: I don't think you can get both genders as in-line; one is always in-line and the other is always panel-mount. I think.

There is a 2-pin "DIN" connector that sometimes gets used for speakers and small AC or DC power supplies. Off the top of my head, I don't know where to get these in small quantities in the US.

There is a 2-pin connector that is commonly used on radio-controlled car batteries:

If you want to party like it's 1959, there's always Jones plugs:

(or, Mouser part numbers 38331-5602 and 38331-8002 )

It's a little bit off of their normal use, but maybe a BNC connector? I hope you don't mind using co-ax. :) The manufacturers don't really spec a DC current; one guy played with some and decided that they are probably good for a few amps:

Standard disclaimers apply; I don't get money or other consideration from any companies mentioned.

Matt Roberds

For 2 conductors the standard dc line socket & plug in metal would be reasonably robust ?

I like Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 connectors; the current limit is 5A or so (depending on wire gage). These are smaller versions of the familiar ATX power connectors (which also might be suitable). They come in variants suitable for free-wire in both male and female, with spring latch.

They aren't suitable for potting, though, and don't provide strain relief and shrouds for sheathed cables. And, you have to find a suitable crimp tool.

a few dozen volts is approaching arc-welder territory

if you want easy to connect, and you appear to be objecting to orientation sensitive plugs above, you've limited to concentric connectors,

RCA phono Barrel (in several sizes) phone (in 6.5mm, 3.5mm and 2.5mm) and the several different styles of coax connectors, or perhaps something with magnets that self aligns.

inline barrel sockets can be ridiculously expensive. but there are some with screw terminals that are quite reasonable.

--
umop apisdn

I like Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 connectors; the current limit is 5A or so (depending on wire gage). These are smaller versions of the familiar ATX power connectors (which also might be suitable). They come in variants suitable for free-wire in both male and female, with spring latch.

They aren't suitable for potting, though, and don't provide strain relief and shrouds for sheathed cables. And, you have to find a suitable crimp tool. ==================================================================

We use the Molex universal hand crimper (non-ratcheting) for small production work, on the small MiniFit Jr. pins and the bigger old-style ones. Molex part number is 638111000, at Mouser and DigiKey for $46. Non-ratcheting but has lots of sizes so you can handle any wire size in a given pin. You also have to do the insulation crimp as a second op, so not as fast but very versatile. There's also a pin extractor tool for the MiniFit Jr.'s but it's over $30, I think, so you can just throw away many mistakes before you would save $$ with the tool :-).

----- Regards, Carl Ijames

I thought of two and three pin XLR's. But, mating them tends to require *watching* that action take place. I.e., ensuring that the keyways are properly aligned.

Think about the examples I cited: barrel connectors, phone and phono plugs are the sorts of things you can EASILY and QUICKLY mate "by feel" -- no need to observe some particular "orientation".

E.g., three pin XLRs see "consumer" use electric wheelchairs (for the charger/programmer port). But, if you watch someone trying to mate the charger/programmer to the chair, it's not done casually -- a good bit of care goes into ensuring the connectors are properly oriented and aligned before being "driven home".

Contrast this with plugging a pair of headphones in to a jack; or a barrel connector from an AC adapter into a bit of kit; etc.

Yikes! I hadn't thought of anything that large! Current carrying requirments don't approach what I've seen those used for (e.g., battery connections).

Despite their size/bulk, they *may* meet the "ease of mating" (orientation, alignment, etc.) criteria! I will have to play with some that I have here...

Thanks! I will look to see if they make any smaller "shells" (the shells that are used on the ones that I have are a bit more than an inch wide, half inch thick and, mated, about two inches long).

Note that I am not concerned about connectors that are sensitive to orientation -- as long as that orientation can be easily achieved! E.g., a USB A connector is far more tedious to mate than a B connector! The B connector is more tedious (than it COULD be) because it's (female) distinctive shape is recessed -- harder to feel than if it had protruded to some degree.

Notice how a phono plug/jack are easy to mate because their outlines are easily identified without visual feedback -- in addition to their concentric contacts. You could reach behind/under a piece of furniture and mate connectors like those!

Is a good old blocky Molex not suitable? Like, the uh...

The 'Standard 0.062"' or MLX serieses?

Tim

-- Seven Transistor Labs Electrical Engineering Consultation Website:

The single-circuit "little" Powerpoles (PP15-45) are about 0.3" square by 1" long when unmated, and about 1.6" long when mated. That's just the plastic housing around the metal contact. You can get "backshells" that surround several of the housings, but the only place I've ever seen them used was in a modular wiring system for 120 V AC.

Datasheet:

(12).pdf

One trick with the Powerpoles is that if you don't use the right crimp tool, it's kind of easy to make the crimp barrel wide enough that it doesn't want to fit in the housing correctly. Some experimentation may be necessary, unless the budget allows buying the "official" crimp tool from the start.

A tiny flat-blade screwdriver works well as a "pin extractor". Basically, you depress the retaining spring with it, and pull on the wire to extract the pin.

Standard disclaimers apply; I don't get money or other consideration from any companies mentioned.

Matt Roberds

Neutrik Speakon? you'll have to rotate the parts until they mate.

Perhaps you can augment Anderson Powerpole to make it easier to use blind,

--
umop apisdn 


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On a sunny day (Sat, 16 Aug 2014 17:17:01 -0700) it happened Don Y wrote in :

For 12V DC I have a lot of cigar lighter car type connectors, Some of those have a fuse too, a good thing. Some have 5V or other adaptors build in. Orientation does not matter. But those are HUGE.

Back in the day when we were building stuff for the government we used (at the customer's request) Lemo connectors, don't recall the name of the product line. They were higher end and might not fall in your $10 per mated pair price range, possibly by a lot. But they were Cadillac with knurled shells and a push (or was it pull) shell to unlock. Just pulling the cable would not separate them. They were also a bit of work to assemble, but not really hard. You just have to pay attention to the multiple sleeves and pins getting it all in the right order.

--

Rick

I think they would be a bit more "challenging" for Joe Average User to mate -- without having "eyes on" during the transaction. You or I, knowing what they *should* look like, could feel for the latch side and reorient as needed without having to see what we were doing at the time; a casual user would probably just end up frustrated -- or, worse, try to force the issue.

[I have seen the 4 pin power connectors on disk drives mis-mated... 180 degrees out! I would not have thought it possible to get them together in light of that *significant* keying!]

I'm not sure how reliable (electrically) they are in the long haul. On a piece of stationary kit, they probably see much less abuse than they would "in-line". Also, probably more likely to be unplugged in this more "linear" orientation (whereas those that mate with counterparts *on* a piece of kit tend to have the cords running off at an angle... not directly in-line)

Adding any sort of "catch" can be counterproductive -- if it isn't intuitively "released" (again, without "eyes on").

They are very reliable. Barrel connectors have been used for decades in laptops and people abuse the heck out of those. The cable fails before the connector itself ever will.

As long as your cable has suitable stress relief and you don't use a 12 cent connector directly soldered to a PCB with no other mechanical support you should be fine. They're cheap, idiot proof, tried and true as well as easy to replace if needed.