[Amps] [BULK] - DIN stands for....?

Sun Feb 26 15:25:34 EST 2006

Keith,

It's according to how many conductors you will have, and the current they will carry. A set of AMP connectors counting the male and female contacts, the plug, socket, and back ends (housings) with the clamps wouldn't be close to $30 I wouldn't think as I used to buy them a lot. You can also by a gasket for outside applications if you think it will get waterlogged where it's at. The thing is, the Bulgin brand is like the Amphenol in that its contacts are permanent inside the socket or plug. If you have a contact to go bad, you have to change out the whole socket/plug, pins and all. With the AMP, you only change out the one bad pin-contact which saves a bunch of money. I just looked at all these in Mouser and the AMP brand, shell style 1 would be about what you would want using probably 18 gauge wire to control switching relays for your array? If so, the total components would equal in cost about the same as a Bulgin from what I seen except buying the tool to remove the contacts which was about $14. You can really remove them with a small piece of brass tubing just large enough to slip over the contact and pull the contact from the rear. The tool has a small rod inside the tubing that shoves it out for you like a syringe the doc uses for a shot. You don't need to by the solder type contacts which are a shade bit higher in price. Buy the crimp type, crimp them and then solder them too. That's the way I always did do them. You don't need to buy one of those expensive had crimpers either, a pair of needle nose pliars will do it. If you were going to mount the socket in a housing, you would by a flanged socket with the contact type you want, male or female. The plug requires three things, the plug, the contacts to mate up with the socket, and the back end with the cable clamp on it. You size the back end housing by the size of cable your running. In the specs, it will give a minimum and maximum cable diameter the clamp will accept. To order the Bulgin, you just need to order the two ends but again, cant change a bad contact. Amphenol though is way too expensive. Miller Electric, who makes welding machines, changed to AMP years ago because the Amphenol was too expensive. I think Lincoln Electric and ESAB started using them too, except for military equipment of special design. If it were me, I'd go with AMP just because of the easy fix if a contact ever went bad. I would much rather change out one contact and solder one joint than do 8-10 off a tower and pay again for a whole plug or socket. If you want, I can help you size these since I've used them in the past.

Best,

Will

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 2/26/06 at 12:47 PM Keith Dutson wrote:

>A while back I decided to plan for a multi-2 station with at least four
>towers.  Since I am only a year away from retirement and not looking
>forward
>to a lot of tower/antenna maintenance in the future, I wanted to design the
>wiring harnesses using the best cables and connectors.  A search for
>industrial connectors for the control cables yielded the type of
>information
>you have described below, Will.  Most of these have a price around $100
>each, so one connection would be double that figure - much more than I am
>willing to pay.
>
>I did, however, find an industrial quality connector made by Bulgin, a
>British firm.  The 400 series Buccaneer line is what I chose.  These likely
>would not be used on military/aviation equipment, but seem fine for my
>project.  They are waterproof.  Mouser sells the components and the total
>price per connector is about $20.  There are chassis/in-line and
>in-line/in-line connectors, so there is plenty of flexibility for design.
>
>I also found a high quality, screw-in DIN connector from Amphenol and use
>some of these in the shack.  These are also available from Mouser.
>
>A photo of the Bulgin and Amphenol connectors can be seen here:
>http://www.dutson.net/Transfer/HamRadio/Connectors/DSC00053ds.JPG
>
>Here is a close-up of the Amphenol, showing components and assembled views:
>http://www.dutson.net/Transfer/HamRadio/Connectors/DSC00054ds.JPG
>
>Here is a close-up of the Bulgin components, chassis mount on left:
>http://www.dutson.net/Transfer/HamRadio/Connectors/DSC00055ds.JPG
>
>Last, here is a Bulgin assembled in-line connector:
>http://www.dutson.net/Transfer/HamRadio/Connectors/DSC00056ds.JPG
>
>
>73, Keith NM5G
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: amps-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:amps-bounces at contesting.com] On
>Behalf Of Will Matney
>Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2006 10:21 AM
>To: amps at contesting.com
>Subject: Re: [Amps] [BULK] - DIN stands for....?
>
>Mike,
>
>Industrial connectors most used on equipment, including robotics, are
>either
>Amp or Amphenol type round connectors. They're large in size but tough end
>easy to use. The pins are either soldered or crimped on the wire outside
>the
>plug or socket then inserted (on the AMP brand). There is a special cheap
>tool used to extract the pins if need be. On Amphenol, you solder them on
>at
>the plug similar to a din plug except these are 10X heavier built. Amp
>plugs
>have black plastic high temp housings and Amphenol has a cast aluminum
>housing generally in olive drab color for military use. The plastic
>insulator in Amphenol plugs is a blue plastic. A round knockout punch of
>the
>right size is all that's needed. You'll find these on a lot of US military
>communications equipment. These are the toughest plug-socket assembleis I
>know of, and can take any standard cable from type SO to microphone cable.
>They also have cable size adapters and rubber tension relief boots. Several
>places sell them  from Mouser to Allied.
>
>Best,
>
>Will
>
>
>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
>On 2/26/06 at 7:44 AM m.ford wrote:
>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Bill Turner" <dezrat at copper.net>
>>To: "Steve Thompson" <g8gsq at eltac.co.uk>; <amps at contesting.com>
>>Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2006 7:04 AM
>>Subject: Re: [Amps] [BULK] - DIN stands for....?
>>
>>
>>> On Sunday, February 26, 2006 12:00 AM [GMT+1=CET], Steve Thompson 
>>> <g8gsq at eltac.co.uk> wrote:
>>> <snip>
>>>> Personally, I like D types. OK - it's a pain making the panel hole, 
>>>> but even low cost ones are decent connectors. Pay a few pennies 
>>>> more, and you get something really nice.
>>>>
>>>> Steve
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>> Couldn't have said it better myself. D-sub is good if you want to 
>>> spend
>>the
>>> money for the punch. I haven't yet.
>>> 
>>> 73, Bill W6WRT
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>Some of the mil stuff I've worked on used various D-sub connectors that 
>>incorporated a few coaxial pins in the array. I have not seen these on 
>>the civilian side.
>> 
>>Perhaps the robotics guys have some interesting connectors.
>>
>>Mike  k1ern
>>
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>
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