On 09/18/2019 09:23 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
Please don't let anybody call the 25 pair 50-pin
miniature ribbon
connector (RJ21), "Centronics"!
On Wed, 18 Sep 2019, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
We used to call them "blue ribbon" connectors. I'm sure
that that's
also a misnomer.
I still believe that that is the correct name.
I've always assumed that that was Amphenol's name for that
line of connector when they invented it. I also assumed
that "blue ribbon" was a reference to the blue first-prize
ribbons at county fair type contests.
Although a friend claimed that that name was
unintentional, since instead of pins, it uses "ribbon
contacts", hence also "micro ribbon connector". and many
of them had a BLUE plastic center section.
The original Amphenol connector was about 3 X the contact
spacing of the micro-blue ribbon
connector, but basically the same design. They used Diallyl
pthalate insulators. I don't know if these are just always
dyed blue, or the chemical makeup makes them blue, but it is
a deep blue color. So, that's where the blue in the name
comes from. The contacts are punched out of a ribbon of
gold-plated beryllium copper, so that's where the ribbon in
the name comes from.
Jon
