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The $11185 Connector

bigmessowires.com

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Re: The $11185 Connector

#31

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

Animats wrote: post #11
daeken wrote: post #7

I'd strongly recommend looking into 3d printing these. You could pretty easily 3d print a plastic version of the connector itself (and shell, if male), then add aluminum tape to the inside if you need EMF protection. Then you just pop in pins (which you can get at Fry's by the hundred for a couple bucks), and you have a finished connector. A few hundred dollars in setup and you're done, with a unit cost of under a do…

None of the low-end 3D printers could hold the tolerances needed. Even a Form 1 isn't that precise. Connector tolerances are very tight. That's why intermittent electrical connections are mostly a thing of the past.

Slight misalignment might actually improve electrical contact as long as it weren't too bad.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#32

Post by greggman »

This just reminds me. I wanted to buy a couple of extra allen wrenches for my camera tripod just so I could put them in various bags and hopefully never be without one.

Check Amazon...

1 wrench $6

100 wrenches $12

I now have a box of 100 allen wrenches all the same size.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#33

Post by RyJones »

greggman wrote: post #32

This just reminds me. I wanted to buy a couple of extra allen wrenches for my camera tripod just so I could put them in various bags and hopefully never be without one. Check Amazon... 1 wrench $6 100 wrenches $12 I now have a box of 100 allen wrenches all the same size.

Give them away at the office as a reward for a job well done.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#34

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

I have a package of DB25 connectors left over from a product I used to build and sell that has slowly been whittled down over the years. It's because of things like this that I have been reluctant to toss them out. At sometime in the future I think they might be useful to me or someone else. Likewise the bag of 50 Centronics connectors. They have to be valuable sometime, right?

Or maybe I'm just a packrat.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#35

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

Alupis wrote: post #24
frozenport wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and my cousin Vinny can get you a better deal, too bad you aren't family.

> Yeah and my cousin Vinny can get you a better deal, too bad you aren't family. I can appreciate your sarcasm here, but it's not constructive and doesn't change the economics of custom fabrication. These factories don't sit around waiting to get small-time jobs to fab a handful of some custom components.

You make a good point, though. The shell size (DB) is the same and you can purchase shells separately. The problem devolves to getting the contacts (it's a standard item you can buy easily) and molding a custom insert. For small quantities, it seems like he could do it himself. The mold shouldn't be difficult to make.

[edit] Even easier would be finding out what material the insert is made of and getting the connectors milled to shape and drilled for the contacts. Fun problem!

Steve, are you listening :-)

Re: The $11185 Connector

#36

Post by tracker1 »

greggman wrote: post #32

This just reminds me. I wanted to buy a couple of extra allen wrenches for my camera tripod just so I could put them in various bags and hopefully never be without one. Check Amazon... 1 wrench $6 100 wrenches $12 I now have a box of 100 allen wrenches all the same size.

Funny, did the same thing for a few P-38 can openers.. now I'm never without one... they're just better when the hand crank ones start wearing out.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#37

Post by jschwartzi »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #35
Alupis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah and my cousin Vinny can get you a better deal, too bad you aren't family. I can appreciate your sarcasm here, but it's not constructive and doesn't change the economics of custom fabrication. These factories don't sit around waiting to get small-time jobs to fab a handful of some custom components.

You make a good point, though. The shell size (DB) is the same and you can purchase shells separately. The problem devolves to getting the contacts (it's a standard item you can buy easily) and molding a custom insert. For small quantities, it seems like he could do it himself. The mold shouldn't be difficult to make. [edit] Even easier would be finding out what material the insert is made of and getting the connecto…

If you've got a DB19F floating around you could even make a jig to hold the pins in place in the exact configuration you need, then simply epoxy them in place.

Re: The $11185 Connector

#38

Post by [deleted] »

cellshade wrote: post #15
Alupis wrote: post #8

The title is very misleading... it's not an $11,185 connector, that's the price of setting up custom tooling for this component. After-which the factory quoted a very reasonable $0.13 per piece. The author went into this stating he'd be willing to pay for their tooling... then is sticker-shocked when they quote him for so. It's like the author went into this thinking they'd pay a few hundred bucks (for the custom too…

Since you seem to be familiar with this sort of thing, what is the best way to find a fab if not going to Alibaba?

[deleted]

Re: The $11185 Connector

#40

Post by Animats »

daeken wrote: post #26
Animats wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the low-end 3D printers could hold the tolerances needed. Even a Form 1 isn't that precise. Connector tolerances are very tight. That's why intermittent electrical connections are mostly a thing of the past.

I regularly print tighter tolerances with an FDM printer (modified Makerbot Replicator 2). D-sub connectors just aren't that tight; if you were printing the pins themselves, it'd be different, but the plastic side of things is not an issue at all.

For connectors where the pins are crimped to wires, then inserted into the connector block, the hole into which each pin fits has a complex form. It has to be shaped so that the pin clicks into place, but isn't pushed out by ordinary connector insertion forces. FDM extruders extrude a thread bigger than the tolerances required for that.

Getting a longer D-sub connector and machining the plastic down is more likely to work. 3D printing isn't magic.

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