Rant: D Connectors - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2017, 03:25:01 pm
content: The situation with D connectors really bugs me. Most of the world (including the IC manufacturers) live in a 0.1 inch x 0.1 inch world and everything fits in here from displays and chips to a large number of connectors. Not the D type though, that second row of pins offset from the first means that you have to either make your own PCB or use an adapter. When making a PCB mounted socket or plug it would have been just as easy to make the pins on a 0.1 x 0.1 grid, just bend the wires a bit, but they just couldn't do it.OK, rant over, I have 12 holes to drill between the existing holes on a piece of perfboard.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2017, 03:26:44 pm
content: That's why you use an IDC connector that uses ribbon cable to go to the board, perfectly fine grid there.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2017, 03:33:08 pm
content: If you can put up with mounting the D-sub connector at the edge of the board, then you can solder one row and hand wire the other one. I've done it for small RS-232 adaptors in the past. Just a thought.

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2017, 06:53:53 pm
content: The D-subminiature connector line dates back to 1952, well before the DIP package that ushered in the 0.1" grid standard.Not sure why you would expect it to conform to a standard that didn't yet exist...

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2017, 07:32:16 pm
content: So you prefer micro-USB? SNAP BREAK BUST FAIL

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2017, 07:56:50 pm
content: Centronics style connectors have arbitrary dimensions. GPIB for instance isn't apparently metric or imperial, it's just odd.Doesn't matter when you've got PCBs. Doing perf board? Put it on pigtails...Tim

author: Someone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2017, 01:58:40 am
content: Quote from: German_EE on June 18, 2017, 03:25:01 pmNo, the world has moved on from those days. Metric is now driving pin pitches 0.7, 0.5, 0.4mm so on and through hole is disappearing rapidly.

author: DBecker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2017, 04:58:09 am
content: I think that the original poster's point was that the PCB footprint doesn't necessarily need to match the connection pin pitch. It would be useful to have a D-shell connector that has a 0.1" footprint.

author: Vtile
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2017, 08:49:45 pm
content: Long live D-sub.

author: Andreas
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2017, 09:10:15 pm
content: Quote from: German_EE on June 18, 2017, 03:25:01 pmHello,I cannot complain: My D-Subs fit. Always.with best regardsAndreas

author: viperidae
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2017, 06:47:54 am
content: RJ11/12/45 sockets are the same, two rows of offset pins that won't fit a perf board.

author: TheUnnamedNewbie
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2017, 08:28:39 am
content: I think the flawed assumption here is that the potential advantage of having a connector (or anything really) fit a .1" perfboard outweight all the other advantages of not having it fit - like how easy it is to route on an actual pcb, strength, density, etc.Also, most manufacturers no longer live in a imperial-driven world. The only things really still imperial (but actually it's not) is SMD footprints like the typical "1206, 0805, 0603, 0402" (even though I believe they are actually defined in metric and then translated to imperial to match, with a 0402 actually being 1.000mm long and 0.500mm wide). In fact, I usually get annoyed by the old DIP footprints and headers not fitting nicely on my metric grid PCBs, making nice allignment a PITA.