tough connectors

[Mark The Spark 0]

I've an odd application where I need some decent connectors: They must be:- Field wireable by frozen fingers 6 pole / pins (or more - but I need 6) have a reasonably decent shroud / cover (but not waterproof - splash maybe). have a PCB mounted mating other half - male or female dont matter - pref 3.5mm pitch. have a good latching action or jack screws volts and current - 24Vdc 200ma - peanuts! Not be a 'D' type - I hate them! - I want something bigger. Anyone used anything they might recomend?- I've trawled Phoenix and Weid to no avail.

[OkiePC 14]

Have a look at Harting and Lapp. I have used Harting quite a bit, very fast delivery and no complaints. My applications were cable to cable, and cable to panel cut-outs, no PCB connections involved. Hope it helps... Paul

[paulengr 44]

You are asking for PCB-mount on the one hand and field terminatable on the other...these are generally opposite requirements. Most PCB-mount customers want to make things small becuase it's lower cost and because it minimizes stress on the PCB (torque arm gets large as the physical connector size increases). For larger connectors it's common to see one type of PCB-mount connector (usually just a header on 100 mil centers) and a totally different panel-mount connector. Physical dimensions are automatically going to be small. Not perhaps as bad as D-Shell connectors but don't expect it to get much better if you want PCB mount. I'd suggest going for anything you can that is preterminated if you can. RJ-45? As in Ethernet connector? If you want sealed, then go for the Harting shrouded stuff. They've got a screw-on connector that fits on the cable and goes over the standard RJ-45 connectors instead of the goofy round M12 connectors with only 4 pins. You can either use a cutter/crimper to terminate or else punch down blocks (at least on the panel side of things). This is probably as good as it's going to get. With the M12 or larger M23 connectors I know you can get a 6 pin M12. I believe Brad sells them. I don't know if you can get a PCB mount version but since it is a very popular form factor, you probably can. The advantage here is that you can get off-the-shelf preterminated cords. Just prewire everything and field terminate using cords. These are not easy to terminate. Some are simple screw terminals, but many require soldering. There are also the rectangular types that can accomodate dozens of pins or more. Not "D-Shell" and they have latches. Again, crimp or solder connections for the most part. My overall suggestion would be to look in a catalog for Harting or Brad. Then call Amphenol or AMP or one of the other major vendors and ask for ideas. Another idea would be ribbon edge connectors. For a very large size, consider the vampire connectors and the flat wiring for DeviceNet. The flat wiring system is 6 conductor and you can clip the connectors in almost anywhere. The connection is also reasonably water resistant. It's essentially an oversized ribbon system. You could also use the same kind of stuff for ASI bus, but I forgot how many conductors ASI bus uses (only 4 I think).

[Mark The Spark 0]

one of those 'doh' moments? I'm using Lapp cable and love the stuff - did'nt even know they did connectors? - will have a look at harting again too - not used them in ages - used to use their 200 odd pin connectors, and those horrible varelco things.

[Mike Dyble 0]

Also have a look a Bulgin, its the sort of thing they do