Author Topic: Reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connector?  (Read 989 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online SiliconWizardTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 15797
  • Country: fr
Reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connector?
« on: June 14, 2019, 06:14:34 pm »
As the title suggests, I'm looking for reasonably robust and reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connectors. Shape doesn't really matter (wouldn't necessarily have to be circular). Would be meant to pass 4 differential pairs (~50MHz digital signals) plus power supply (12V), ground and an extra ID signal (so actually 11 pins would be OK).

What I've found so far that would fit is the NEUTRIK miniCON series such as: https://www.neutrik.com/en/product/mpf12-h
Nice stuff but a bit on the expensive side (although it's still not quite as expensive as LEMO connectors!)
I would like to find something a bit less expensive ($5-$6 each max). Don't know if this is realistic. What do you guys think?

 

Offline sokoloff

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1799
  • Country: us
Re: Reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connector?
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2019, 06:33:08 pm »
How many do you need and do you need a reliable, long-term supply or are these custom one-offs?

If you can tolerate some uncertainty in supply chain, you might look to military surplus connectors and see what you can find in a surplus store. They're incredibly robust (as they're often in field conditions with GIs who could break an anvil) and often cheap to buy a box of them in surplus channels. Problem is, you won't be able to guarantee a supply of same in the future.
 

Offline duak

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1048
  • Country: ca
Re: Reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connector?
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2019, 06:43:26 pm »
Look for "M12 connectors".  These are used in industrial equipment and manufactured by TE Connectivity, Bulgin, Amphenol et al.
 

Online SiliconWizardTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 15797
  • Country: fr
Re: Reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connector?
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2019, 07:12:29 pm »
Thanks. No it wouldn't be for a one-off so availability is important.

Just saw the Amphenol Sine series (eg. RTS714N12S03) which looks significantly cheaper indeed. I like the push-pull locking mechanism of the NEUTRIK ones though (as well as the compactness), many of the cheaper industrial connectors don't seem to have such a mechanism and are much larger. I guess I can't have it all.

 

Offline alpher

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 361
  • Country: ca
Re: Reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connector?
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2019, 08:07:51 pm »
Automationdirect.com is the place to go for cheap stuff.
They have a huge inventory and reasonable quick shipping.

 

Offline bugrobotics

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 63
  • Country: us
Re: Reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connector?
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2019, 09:23:52 pm »
If I had a choice I'd go with Turck.  Better build quality than some of the other M12 variants.  Only downside is you sometimes have to wait a few weeks for the parts as the major distributors don't carry a lot of stock.
 

Online SiliconWizardTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 15797
  • Country: fr
Re: Reasonably-priced 12-pin industrial connector?
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2019, 01:25:55 pm »
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll get some samples before making a choice. The NEUTRIK miniCON still seems to tick all my boxes for this project except cost though.
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf