The most horrid connector ever...

[Lucien Nunes]

Originally Posted by Hartley118

I've been surprised at the inadequacy of the industry standard 'caravan' type of mains connector

The connector in use here is an IEC60309, the standard industrial power connector in use all over Europe for 40 years, formerly known over here as BS4343. Ratings from 25-750V, 16-125A. They have their failings but when correctly specified, all but the cheap and nasty ones are pretty reliable.

The cabin has an appliance inlet, which comes in different ingress protection ratings. The one fitted appears to be an IP44 type which is splashproof but not waterproof. The type with the locking ring and gasket (described as a 'skirt' upthread) is rated to IP67 and is waterproof, which would have been a better choice here, in conjunction with an IP67 socket coupler. Neither type necessarily has a flap on the inlet, if it is not intended to offer protection when unmated. An IP44 type sometimes has a flap, an IP67 type has a cap that locks on in place of the coupler using the locking ring.

[high_vacuum_house]

I cannot stand the massive range of very similar USB plug/socket connectors. It was fine with the original rectangular connectors and the square end for the printer but there seems now to be a multitude of similar but ever so slightly different shaped collars which when you have multiple devices, I always get the wrong one, then find it is 180 degrees out because it is nearly rectangular.

Another vote for Lemo connectors especially when someone has accidentally fitted all of the wrong ones to 20 or more temperature and pressure sensors for an engine to go on test and climbing all over it with a seller soldering iron and base station in an environmental test cold chamber changing them all.

Christopher Capener

[Lucien Nunes]

I can't understand the dislike of Lemo connectors (and presumably similar types by Fischer, Hirose etc.) They are precision-engineered, high-spec products that perform well under extreme conditions. They can be very satisfying to wire because a very high quality result can be obtained. Our industry (cinematography equipment) runs on them and I routinely wire anything from 6-pin 0B's to 20+ pin 2Bs and 104's. Admittedly the vast range tends to result in large stockholding. I have 500+ different items in inventory that just cover the basics. On the shelf in front of me are 16 different cable clamp types just for one size of connector shell, of one product range, of one brand.

The Lemo 00 was mentioned. This is a highly specialised thing with a connector nose just a few mm in diameter, inside which you can have up to 6 pins, while the 2-pin version is rated up for 5A, withstands 250°C over 5000 mating cycles, with full screening etc. The spacing between the solder buckets is about 0.5mm and requires extra-thin-wall heatshrink and extreme care when wiring, but these are the prices you pay for miniaturisation of a high performance connector.

[whyperion]

Originally Posted by ColinTheAmpMan1

How about two wires roughly twisted together and covered with a ton of cheap insulating-tape. Got to be the worst-ever, surely.
Colin.

there are some ideas on YT that actually a twisted connection heat shrunk in some circumstances is not such a bad idea , not recomended though for mains + voltages.

[G6Tanuki]

I never had any issues with LEMO-connectors or their familiars; in the 80s and 90s we used them in their thousands for instrumentation/data-collection stuff at Rutherford Labs, Harwell, Capenhurst, Daresbury, Chapelcross and the JET site at Culham - they were reliable! But you needed to stick to the specs and use the right cable with the right plug/socket.

I still have a distinct weakness for CAMAC -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comput...nt_and_Control

and NIM:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclea...ntation_Module

and the CATHY / CATEX programming-language we used [running under DEC RT-11 on LSI11/02 or 11/23 hardware] for lab data-acquisition.

[turretslug]

Lemo connectors are lovely things- inevitably for any connector type that's generally compact and precise they take some care and attention in initial choice and in wiring and assembly. Not something I'd really want to put together in the field, definitely a bench, clamp, magnifier, decent iron job but it would be difficult to find something sturdier and more dependable. You pay for that quality but you get excellent clamping, positive polarising and engagement yet you could drop it off a roof or drive over it and it would barely be marked.

[AC/HL]

Originally Posted by G6ONEDave

Not keen on the side swipe type of connections, where the fixed 'U channel' is meant to cut through the wire insulation and grip the wire.

Insulation Displacement connector or IDC. Only meant to be used once, and in a fixed or semi fixed environment. Anyone tasked with terminating hundreds of wires (or even 10s) will value these over what went before!

[duncanlowe]

F types. Yes the ones that screw onto the sheath are pretty rubbish. But it's possible to get crimp on ones, and I've been quite happy with those. Prefer them to the Belling Lee ones TBH.

Regarding Lemo, there is no doubt that they are a quality connector. Used widely for various kinds of instrumentation in test I've been involved with. But I do have a beef with them, where they have so many odd combinations of polarisation, pins, and so on. Some of the variations are impossible to source through the usual suspects. There are certain suppliers of equipment that know this, and choose the oddball ones so you have to pay £500 or so for a £20 connector and £3 of cable. After being bitten by this too many times, we ended up getting one of our usual suppliers to agree to get the special order versions direct from Lemo, (yes our purchasing dept wouldn't let us buy directly from Lemo).

[Maarten]

Originally Posted by factory

I don't know if it counts for this thread, but I vote for the Schaffner IEC mains filter connector (the time delay stink-bomb variety), some say they contain the infamous RIFA paper capacitors, but the last one I opened had at least two of the WIMA version, I couldn't work out the make or type of the third one.

As long as they are paper capacitors (Wima MP3), they will let the smoke out sooner or later. The paper doesn't know who oiled, rolled and potted it.

[Richard_FM]

I've found F-Type connectors are hard to line up the threads before tightening, especially as it takes a few turns before you realise you are cross-threaded.

For most of the equipment I with with them I've fitted some adaptors so I don't have to worry about messing up the threads.

[Red to black]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

Insulation Displacement connector or IDC. Only meant to be used once, and in a fixed or semi fixed environment. Anyone tasked with terminating hundreds of wires (or even 10s) will value these over what went before!

Yes, field wiring for use once terminations are far faster and easier with IDC connectors, thank you lord

[Red to black]

Scart in their later configuration were pretty horrid for most of the reasons already said, the horizontal 'flatform' types were not too bad, there were though one or two TV types(LG/Goldstar at least) that had vertical types of socket where the most commonly available off-set cable entry types were upside-down and simply wouldn't physically fit !

[stuarth]

I liked the GR connectors. I had a 30cm air line which could be used to check scope timings, it having a delay of one light foot (or one nano second as some folks call it).

My parents house originally had Dorman Smith 13A ring main plugs where the live pin was the fuse. Fine until a fuse snapped in half - leaving one half in the live socket.

Stuart

[Craig Sawyers]

Because I have a fondness for GR test gear, I have quite an extensive range of cables, air lines, attenuators and adaptors,

The thing that gets used most often is a 1615A capacitance bridge. That has 6 figures of capacitance and 6 figures of D. The reference capacitors are invar spaced by silica in a dry nitrogen atmosphere. It is a measurement tour de force.

Craig

[Red to black]

I, like quite a few on her no doubt have worked in various industries, I have had my fair share of different plugs and sockets over the years! Hi-rose types could be tricky depending on how many connections and how small, working backwards from the inside out!, Cannon plugs likewise, and yes we have all forgotten the shell! .

One of the scariest was a Stainless steel 50-way connector for Liebherr cranes that carried power and control to motorised head that needed to be rang out to the cores *BEFORE* you potted and sealed it as there was no turning back after, these cost a small fortune (probably more than my weeks wages!) apparently!

[dtvmcdonald]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

The 'UHF' connectors are rather horrid; basically they're nothing more than a screened banana-plug.

During the 70s and early-80s there were some Japanese versions that used a non-standard thread: these would seemingly screw-on to a proper connector but the threads would bind before the connector was fully screwed home - by which time they were probably locked-up so tight you'd need a pipe-wrench to separate them.

As my 'nasty connector' can I nomminate the GR874 hermaphroditic connectors used on some 50s test-gear.

I've used those hermaphrodite connectors quite a bit, including as output
for 2540 MHz 100 watt magnetron generators for gas discharges. They work very well.

The UHF connectors were for frequencies below, usually well below, 30MHz,
and what was on the other side was violently not impedance matched.

[jamesperrett]

For those who hate soldering up Lemos there is a solution - get Lemo to do it. It took me years to discover that they have a cable manufacturing service but, once I discovered it, I had them make up all the cables we used that involved a Lemo connector.

The connectors I hate the most are Burton IE55 underwater connectors - they work fine at the surface and at the bottom of the ocean but they have a habit of leaking and having intermittent connections between about 500 and 1000m depth.

[dtvmcdonald]

Originally Posted by Beobloke

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned the F-Type satellite aerial connector yet (or if they have, I missed it - sorry!).

The idea of a connector that is basically a shell only and which you 'screw' onto the bare end of a cable with the shielding pulled back still astonishes me. When I had trouble with the connection on my television that turned out to be down to these abominations, I rashly assumed that I'd be able to buy some nice solder ones, but I was damned if I could find any.

In the end I bought custom-made leads with lovely solid plugs and proper centre pins on them and have had no more problems since. It seems that expensive cables do make a difference sometimes...

F-type satellite/cable connectors are the worst.

I had a terrible time with these and my Airspy SDR radio. Being connected
to a computer, grounding is the most important thing. I used expensive satellite cable. It was horrid electrically.

I eventually traced the problem to a 2 ohm resistance between ground ends!
I cut one end off and measured the resistance connector to
shield: 1 ohm!

I tried other brands ... none better than 0.5 ohm! This is horrible when you depend on low resistance to actually short out noise. The cable is of
course all-aluminum shield so you can't solder. I later tried an identical cable with identical DC resistance on an expensive ($100,000) HP network analyzer.
At RF it was simply superb ... no trace of any connector loss or mismatch.
Above 30 MHz the capacitave impedance between connector and shield was so low as to be essentially zero.

I went to RG-223 (double silver coated braid) and soldered-on quality
BNC connectors ... works nicely.

[TonyDuell]

Originally Posted by Jonster

EDAC connectors are pretty tiresome to wire up. Luckily I rarely come across them. I have done hundreds of LEMO and FISCHER connectors over the years though and they are very fiddly!

Assuming that's the EDAC 516 series (the large multi-pin ones often used for audio), I love them.

The contacts (which are hermaphroditic, so no hunting for a pin or a socket, just grab a contact) are separate from the plug/socket moulding, so there's nothing to melt when you solder them. There is a proper solder-tag contact which being gold-plated solders very easily.

But the best feature is the back shell (cover, whatever you call it). It will fit over the cable after you've wired the connector. There is nothing you have to remember to put on first. Which, given there can be 100 or more wires connected to the connector pins is a major advantage.

[Terry_VK5TM]

The Australian 3 pin plug

Plug per se - take it or leave it, but the horrible push over plastic cover is a right royal pain to both put on and remove without taking chunks out of your hands.