Electronics > Beginners
Connector recommendations
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CatalinaWOW:
I share your pain in trying to pick a connector among the tens of thousands of choices shown on the vendor sites. 

Like others, for indoor use I like the IDC connectors that mate to DIP headers.  For outdoor or other use where sealing is required I have had success with the Aptiv GT-150 series of connectors.  I make no claims that they are best, but they have worked outdoors for years for me and met my search criteria of relatively low cost and no expensive tooling to assemble.

https://www.mouser.com/Aptiv/Connectors/Automotive-Connectors/GT-150-Series/_/N-1ehb5?P=1z0x9zoZ1z0zlezZ1z0z4xuZ1yzmtni

Been crimping the pins and sockets with one of those cheap hardware store general purpose crimpers.
David Hess:
The Molex connectors I linked are suitable for chassis wiring inside of an enclosure or on a test bench.

For external but not outdoor connectors I like D-connectors but they are not weatherproof.

IDC DIP and header connectors are useful inside of a chassis where parallel buses or transmission lines are present.  They are especially useful when you have to route a lot of signals between two printed circuit boards.

There is a related connector which uses the single version of the headers used for IDC connectors which is like half way to being a Molex connector.  You see a very similar connector used for fan connections on personal computer motherboards.  I have not found a good make and model of these yet to recommend them.


Jwillis:
Selecting connectors comes with requirements . First start with voltage and current specifications.Try to double the capabilities of the connector to the voltage and current your using.Next is what type of environment is the connector being exposed to? This includes temperature ,vibration ,moisture ,light exposure .Fastening type ,Does it need to been removed regularly?. How many connection points do you need.You may have to separate high power connections from low power signal to avoid interruptions..
All I'm saying is list your requirements and select accordingly.Because every connector has its application and limitations.   
CatalinaWOW:

--- Quote from: Jwillis on May 02, 2019, 09:37:48 pm ---Selecting connectors comes with requirements . First start with voltage and current specifications.Try to double the capabilities of the connector to the voltage and current your using.Next is what type of environment is the connector being exposed to? This includes temperature ,vibration ,moisture ,light exposure .Fastening type ,Does it need to been removed regularly?. How many connection points do you need.You may have to separate high power connections from low power signal to avoid interruptions..
All I'm saying is list your requirements and select accordingly.Because every connector has its application and limitations.

--- End quote ---

Absolutely agree.  Don't forget bandwidth and/or risetime and shielding requirements.  And will point out that for a beginner or hobby user unit cost and tooling cost are two of the most important requirements. 

Also, if anyone knows a database that let's you find connectors based on all of the requirements I would love to know about it.  Mouser and Digikey let you sort on a few of the requirements, but still leave you sorting through thousands of items.  They also mix in all of the dozens of options and accessories making it hard to find just the connector family.
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