Connector rant

Samtec ?

Cheers

I saw them on Digikey. I don't know are they OK?

We don't use many inter board connectors. (I could describe my best layout style as; opamps on a pcb behind the front panel with switches and pots. Which leads to kinda big front panels.)

George H.

Samtec makes excellent stuff. Not the cheapest, but very good.

I'm doing a front panel now, with a big gorgeous color LCD, a spinner knob, and a zillion back-lit pushbuttons. Melrose Nameplate is making a custom molded silicone pushbutton array for us, with detents and carbon-button contacts. V-bite BNC connectors.

It's gonna be beautiful. We may do several instruments on that foundation.

Thanks, I don't need the cheapest, Samtec came up when I sorted by price on DK.

This is a right angle contact between two pcb's. I haven't done it that much before, except for an instrument I took over... from which I learned to fit it all together and in the end, solder in the switches and such. I'm still laying it out. Getting all the mechanicals right in 3D is a pain. (I'll probably make an electrical error on the first try too..)

Sounds nice, using the same bits in different ways makes it all cheaper.

George H.

We'll use a ribbon cable to connect the front-panel board to the main board. That lets us hop over all the electronics and connectors at the front of the main board. And no alignment dims to calculate.

I'm not quite visualizing how the V-bites work there--are they on the main board or do the BNCs come out the top of the box?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I usually use FFCs, or SIP leadframes for very small stuff.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Not exactly on topic, but why the hell can't they give me some clue as to how micro-usb connectors align in the dark with maybe a little bit of a tactile hint? My eyesight just isn't what it once was..

And while we're at it, what idiot came up with the idea of using those puny little connectors for recharge ports anyway? Recharging is done so often that the connector will wear out before either the battery or tablet (I'm on my third cable). The coax plug is far more robust and has no wrong orientation.

And polarized two wire mains plugs? Ditto, a tactile projection on the plug would sure make that easier.

Works with airplanes.. you don't have to look to tell which lever your hand is resting on. (you better look - but you don't have to)

I'll try and plug the big usb's in the wrong way up, but that's pretty easy to feel. I've replaced the usb plug on two nexus 7's (owned by my kids.) It get's easier the second time around.

George H.

They are on the horizontal main board and sneak through holes in the front panel just below the vertical front-panel board.

The front panel is, in order

Sticker

punched metal plate

Melrose silicone pushbutton array with carbon pads

PC board with pushbutton contact pads on one side, down-firing LEDs on the other

Silly baby board for the encoder

and the LCD sandwiched in there somewhere.

FTDI makes a cool smart LCD controller chip that we can talk to SPI, through the ribbon cable.

I'll post pics when it's all done.

In the dark? They are ambiguous enough in the light.

I put red paint dots on connectors and cameras to orient them.

USB3 wull be ambidextrous, after all these years.

Ironic, that word "Universal."

Blame Intel.

Have you seen these LCD interface boards?

I2C-IIC-TWI-Serial-Interface-Board-Module-for-Arduino-R3-LCD-1602-2004-Display/