The most horrid connector ever...

As promised I have started this thread to find "The most horrid connector ever".

Mine is the PL/SO 239, for an RF connector it isn't constant impedance. For wiring a right pain to terminate. For use, you never really know if it is tight and not in the slightest water proof.

[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 connectorsused on some 50s test-gear.

[Lloyd 1985]

I particularly disliked little tiny multi pin Lemo connectors! The connectors themselves are nice enough, probably why they were specified on the things I was making, but when coupled with a curly cable with conductors that are too big for the pins, and they need insulating with heatshrink, and you have only a soldering iron that has a tip the size of a brick, they are not much fun. Especially if there are 50 of them to make up!

Regards
Lloyd

[fetteler]

Having spent most of he afternoon sorting out the electrics on my brother's trailer I would like to say that the 7 pin 12N standard trailer/caravan connector is rubbish especially the plastic ones.

Steve.

The 'UHF' connectors are rather horrid

Different name for the SO/PL 239, that's two votes against!

[ThePillenwerfer]

From a termination point of view DIN, SCART and USB for me.

[Craig Sawyers]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

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

They are absolutely fine. Sure you need the right tools if you are going to install them on a cable, but when they were introduced in late 1948 there weren't many connectors that would handle up to 4.5GHz with a VSWR of 0.2dB (1.023) per connector pair.

GR were still manufacturing and supplying them in 1973 25 years later, along with the even more highly specified GR900 series connectors, also hermaphrodite, that went to 8.5GHz with a VSWR of less than 1.008 per connector pair.

These did not wear out, were positive location, had very low RF leakage (and the 874available with a locking ring version to reduce leakage even further). The 900 series had an integral locking ring from the get go.

I think they were a fine connector that stood the test of time.

Now sure the SMA was introduced in 1968 and (with hardline) goes to 18GHz+. But if you thought it was difficult to terminate an 874, try an SMA! and they are nothing like as robust as the chunky GR connectors. A bit like BNC's, they are a source of trouble on the end of a length of coax.

Craig

[SiriusHardware]

I'd like to give a special mention to the 13-pin DIN plug. Yes, they really do exist. 13 connections to make in the area of a standard DIN plug pin carrier, 12 pins arranged in a rectangle with the 13th pin offset on one side of the rectangle. Imagine meticulously wiring one of those up only to discover that you have, as always, forgotten to slide the cover onto the cable first. Or is that just me?

They can sometimes be plugged in upside down with almost zero force, the 13th pin disappearing down the hollow which is meant to accept the idented part of the metal screening cover.

They are used as monitor output connectors on the Atari ST series of home computers.

[duncanlowe]

I also vote for the 7 pin towing connectors, both versions! I don't think I've ever seen a decent one, only bad or really bad. As they spend most of their lives unmated, the pins tarnish rather easily, and the sockets tend to have poor tension. Given that on the supplementary version they can also be asked to carry significant current, they are really not very good. There is a newer 13 pin version which is much better.

But the absolute worst is the Scotchlock. Now in the right environment and controlled usage, IDC connectors are no problem. But Scotchlocks were sold for use with no environmental protection, in a high vibration environment, and uncontrolled conductor diameters. Disaster on wheels, literally!

I find SMAs fine, as said so are BNCs. SAMs come in a handy slide on PCB mount socket, very handy.

[Craig Sawyers]

While we're on hermaphrodite connectors, lets not forget the Rohde and Schwarz "Dezifix B". Very difficult to find a formal spec for this, but it was the same principle as the GR900 so probably well into the GHz region. R&S complicated matters by making 50, 60 and 75 ohm versions that intermate. They even made the old Polyskop wobbulators in different impedance versions just to complicate matters further.

Of course if you make a mistake on impedance VSWR goes out the window big time.

Craig

[kevinaston1]

My pet horror was the Bulgin PX0551, much loved of disco lighting.

Getting an 8 core cable in there took quite some doing.

[Restoration73]

A right angle pressure sleeve gasket PL-259 has been around for a long time. These
have a captive pin in PTFE and straight versions also exist for 5 and 10mm coax.

Belling-Lee not one of my favourites.

Nor is SCART (Peritel) - awful

[wave solder]

The SCART Péritel connector over the years has caused me so many headaches, usually so cheaply made and always falling out or only making partial contact.

[turretslug]

Yeah, the solder-to-braid version of the "PL-259" plug types was the work of a surly sadist, just heaping further debit points on something with the non-constant impedance mentioned above, plus the difficulty of getting anything near low plug-to-socket screening resistance unless you had Mole-grip fingers- and that decent outer connection would be dismally transient anyway. Some sockets were machined brass, giving a modicum of hope, many were grey muckite with barely discernible threads- don't hope for more than about 2 mating cycles....

Definitely Room 101.

[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.

[The Philpott]

I find SCART completely unfit for purpose, even when new.

Bullet connectors, Scotchloks and Lucas hollow lighting bullets have to get a mention.

WAGO quick connectors seem to be popular now for mains work, but i personally don't like the idea of them.

Dave

[Dave Moll]

As far as using them is concerned, I would add another vote for the horrible SCART Péritel - such a poor combination of a connector with no securing device and a heavy cable coming out at an angle that is forever dislodging at least some of the plug from the socket.

As far as wiring a connector is concerned, if a telephone-related item is acceptable here, I find RJ21 25-pair connectors a nightmare to wire up, even with the specially designed "crimping" tool. The number of times I've wired one up only to find that some of the wires haven't made good connections with the IDC pins in the connector after I have spent ages laying them out (two passes of 25 wires each) and getting them to stay put, making sure that I have laid out the correct 25 in the correct sequence. Maybe, however, there's a knack to it that I simply haven't developed yet.

[pmmunro]

But the absolute worst is the Scotchlock. Now in the right environment and controlled usage, IDC connectors are no problem. But Scotchlocks were sold for use with no environmental protection, in a high vibration environment, and uncontrolled conductor diameters.

WAGO quick connectors seem to be popular now for mains work, but i personally don't like the idea of them.

I'd certainly vote for the Scotchlok, if it can even be considered a connector! It's often applied by any tool which will force it to nearly cut through multistranded cores of a large wire next to a small wire which it barely touches. IP rating IP -1 -1 with a special affinity for salt and grit. A life measured in hours if used on a commercial vehicle. Even it's being quick and cheap is not an advantage but a false sense of security.

I quite like the WAGO connectors, especially the ones that look like pulley blocks, they have a decent set of approvals too and surely must be better than the round Bakelite box, usually broken, with split brass posts which are, amazingly, still available and even approved.

PL259s? Don't try to solder the braid - clamp it with an Oetiker 2-ear clamp https://www.oetiker.com/en/Products/...amps/PG101_151 and finish with a Hellerman sleeve or Heatshrink tubing.

Scart - a good idea ruined by poor quality construction - a bean counter's connector.

PMM

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by ColinTheAmpMan1

How about two wires roughly twisted together and covered with a ton of cheap insulating-tape.

... or with one of those (thankfully now obsolete) Screwit porcelain threaded cones.