On 6/22/17 4:22 PM, William H. Fite wrote:
A good friend of mine, sadly of blessed memory, was a lead engineer for
Grumman on the comm systems of the lunar lander. He spoke of small
space-rated multi-pin connectors that cost upward of $500 each.
The Micro-D is widely used in spaceflight, and is a pox on the connector
world - not only are they expensive, the way the pins and jacks are made
is almost asking for damage - the pin is shrouded in a hole, and the
jack is exposed. $100 for a 9 pin wouldn't surprise me.
Lately, I've been encountering nano-D (Glenair, Omnetics) - they're not
as delicate, they're smaller.
On Thursday, June 22, 2017, Arnold Tibus <arnold.ti...@gmx.de> wrote:
Hello,
I can second Magnus and want to throw in some more details.
Cannon, Deutsch, Bendix, Souriau, Matrix, Amphenol, etc. etc. are (big)
companies manufacturing all kind of connectors and are n o t connector
type designations! Important are the type numbers of the manufacturer or
higher level specification numbers.
We used in the aircraft and spacecraft business naturally the military
(MS-) numbers listed in the MIL-QPL (or eg. for Spacelab with GSFC spec.
no). Most types of connectors are under these numbers available from
different manufacturers, of course with different manufacturer in house
part numbers. Attention: the 'same' connectors may be bought w/o the
Mil.-spec. sheets with somewhat lesser quality. Important details are
the max. mating number, the contact resistance (e.g. 20 mOhm) and the
max. continuous current, max. Voltage, vibration resistance and
reliability etc. Of course, this makes good connectors somewhat
'expensive'. Hirel and non-magnetic gold plated D- subminiture type
connectors do survive e.g. the rocket launch phase (high vibrations),
vacuum and low temperatures and are still used for space projects.
AMP (and others) sell a lower cost version called the "Circular Plastic
Connector" or CPC. A coarser screw thread than the round metal MS
connectors.
The round connectors (called Bendix connectors by some at JPL, because,
of course, that was the mfr for some batch of them) have a nice mil-std
to define them. There's a Shell, an Insert, and pins/jacks. You can
get shells and inserts with different keys and "clocking" to prevent
mismates. There are coax and triax inserts, high voltage inserts, etc.
While they're pricey brand new, there are numerous surplus suppliers
(Apex Electronics in Sun Valley, CA used to have thousands of them).
You can get them hermetic, vacuum tight, waterproof, locking,
non-locking, every kind dielectric imaginable, etc.
The D-sub series of connectors was introduced by Cannon in 1952. They
are still available as standard, hirel, and non-magnetic versions. The
contacts were machined contacts forcrimping or soldering connection and
made of massive copper with gold finish. (more see e.g.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-subminiature). Example for the standard
9 pin connector designation (crimp): DEMAM-9S and DEMAM-9P. Today are a
big number of companies producing equivalent types. Cheap ones are
equipped with contacts made of sheetmetal. Nobody should expect then the
same spec. values as reliability, mating numbers, contact power rating etc.
It is up to the designer of a product to be informed and select the
right quality device for his product ...
My problem with D-sub is two fold:
1) making a chassis hole is a pain - although now, with places like
Front Panel Express, it's less so.
2) the shroud around the plug/male gender is easy to bend if it gets
stepped on. Sure, for flight hardware, carefully handled under the
watchful eye of QA, not an issue, but I have lots of these from my
not-entirely-mis-spent youth that are bent.
They do come with removable pins/jacks, and you can get coax flavors too.
They're fairly compact in a panel.
Other connectors of interest are those made by Lemo and Hirose. Lemo
are locking, pretty rugged when mated, and small for the number of
conductors. You see them on high end video and medical gear.
There's also something about double banana plugs and mating jacks. I go
back and forth between PP and banana plugs for preference.
BTW, there are panel mounts for PP.
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