Power supply 4 pole connectors, plugs and sockets

[Ian.M]

With a 230W power brick, its highly probable that the power lead is carrying something like 10A, (which is consistent with the specs of the linked connector if the pins are paralleled in pairs - 7.5A/pin @ 20V, 5A/pin @30V) and adding more lead length is likely to cause excessive voltage drop unless you use a far far heavier gauge cable.   

IMHO you are going to have to live with the downside of trying to get desktop class performance in a laptop,  one of which is being on a short tether to a house-brick sized PSU.   To fix the problem would require a custom PSU with sense wires going right up to the laptop plug to compensate for the voltage drop, and would probably cost a significant part of the value of the laptop.

[akis]

Is it one of these. A microphone plug as used on CB radios and many brands of soldering irons.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-4-5-6-8-Pins-Microphone-Chassis-Sockets-Plugs-Male-Female-CB-Ham-Radio-/231359930831?var=&hash=item35de2061cf:m:mTX8ahsP3iD6U8AKD5DvjuQ

Unfortunately it is not The "bottom" pair of pins are closer together than the top pair !

But I have cut the leads and made extensions anyway.

With a 230W power brick, its highly probable that the power lead is carrying something like 10A, (which is consistent with the specs of the linked connector if the pins are paralleled in pairs - 7.5A/pin @ 20V, 5A/pin @30V) and adding more lead length is likely to cause excessive voltage drop unless you use a far far heavier gauge cable.   

IMHO you are going to have to live with the downside of trying to get desktop class performance in a laptop,  one of which is being on a short tether to a house-brick sized PSU.   To fix the problem would require a custom PSU with sense wires going right up to the laptop plug to compensate for the voltage drop, and would probably cost a significant part of the value of the laptop.

Well, the PSU gives out 19.5V but the 4S battery gives out "nominal" 14.8V (min 12V or so, max 16.8V).  That means even if I drop a volt or two on the cable I am still over than the highest charged battery possible (actually unhealthily charged).

But yes, I made a mistake and used a thinner cable and it gets hot sometimes. That was a mistake, but the system works for over half a year now so it's all good.

[lastNick]

Maybe this topic is a dead horse but since I found it while searching for this type of connector I will provide my other findings:

The connector is named KPPX-4P and is produced by KYCON. You can find the data sheet here: http://www.kycon.com/Pub_Eng_Draw/KPPX-4P.PDF. The mating socket to this connector should be KYCON KPJX-CM-4S according to page 3 the data sheet of my MEAN WELL power supply http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/260/gst160a-spec-606091.pdf

Important Hint: Pin assignment is NOT standardized! I replaced an EDAC EA11351A by a MEAN WELL GST160A12-R7B and had to adjust the pin assignment of the MEAN WELL to make it usable.

Best Michael

[EDIT] bad english improved 
[EDIT^2] hint added

[kb0nly]

You are correct lastNick, HOWEVER... Your power supply and connectors that you linked to are the opposite gender.

I came across this post because i too am trying to find this connector.  Its the same as the Kycon KPPX series but the gender is reversed.  On the MeanWell supplies the cable has the Male Pins, and on the device it connects to is the Female Socket.  But some devices are showing up that have the plug on the power supply as the Female, and the device is the Male. 

One example... Makerbot Replicator 2x has the same plug as the OP's laptop.  The power supply is the Female and the Printer is the Male.  From what i can tell they did this so that the power supply no longer has exposed pins with power on them, i've seen quite a few people touch that connector to something or drop it and have it short out and arc across the pins because they didnt unplug the supply first from the mains.

I have been on a quest for almost a year now to find a source of these but gave up.  Would still like to find them but its looking like its impossible.  So what i have been doing on these is buying either new jacks to put on the PCB, aka the Mightyboard, in the printer to swap the gender to match the MeanWell supply or butchering cables, but at $80-$100 for the MeanWell supply its not a cheap item to be chopping up.

If anyone ever comes across a source for a KPPX-4 plug that is the female sockets let me know.  I emailed Kycon and they did actually reply, apparently its a KPPX-4S, S for Socket, but when they linked me to the part it was the PCB mounted socket not the cable mounted plug.  So i reiterated to them i need the plug as a female and then communication went dead with them.  So i don't think Kycon made these.  Probably can find a whole box of them in a Shenzen market somewhere but not online!

[kb0nly]

One last note...

You can sorta make one custom...

If you buy a KPPX-4P, which is the male connector found on the MeanWell supplies, and a KPJX-CM-4S which is the cable mounted female jack, and then swap the internal pieces you can make a KPPX-4P Female plug.  The KPJX has a shroud around it and is intended to be used as an inline connector to mate with the KPPX so it cannot plug into a device with the male PCB mounted jack, but the internal piece with the sockets is a molded plastic part that will fit in the metal shell inside the KPPX.  Its expensive as you have to buy both connectors at around $5-6 each but it works.