An electrical connector is a conductive device for joining electrical circuits together. In Science and engineering, a conductor is a material which contains movable Electric charges. An electrical network is an interconnection of Electrical elements such as Resistors Inductors Capacitors Transmission lines Voltage The connection may be temporary, as for portable equipment, or may require a tool for assembly and removal, or may be a permanent electrical joint between two wires or devices. There are hundreds of types of electrical connectors. In computing, an electrical connector can also be known as a physical interface. Connectors may join two lengths of flexible wire or cable, or may connect a wire or cable to an electrical terminal. A terminal is a conductive device for joining Electrical circuits together
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Properties of electrical connectors
An ideal electrical connector would have a low contact resistance and high insulation value. It would be resistant to vibration, water, oil, and pressure. It would be easily mated/unmated, unambiguously preserve the orientation of connected circuits, reliable, carry one or multiple circuits. Desirable properties for a connector also include easy identification, compact size, rugged construction, durability (capable of many connect/disconnect cycles), rapid assembly, simple tooling, and low cost. No single connector has all the ideal properties. The proliferation of types is a reflection of the differing importance placed on the design factors.
Types of electrical connectors
A terminal is a simple type of electrical connector that connects two or more wires to a single connection point. Wire nuts are another type of single point connector. Wire-Nut is a registered trademark of Ideal Industries for a twist-on wire connector
Terminal blocks
Terminal blocks (also called terminal boards or strips) provide a convenient means of connecting individual electrical wires. They are usually used to connect wiring among various items of equipment within an enclosure or to make connections among individually enclosed items. Since terminal blocks are readily available for a wide range of wire sizes and terminal quantity, they are one of the most flexible types of electrical connector available. Some disadvantages are that connecting wires is more difficult than simply plugging in a cable and the terminals are generally not very well protected from contact with persons or foreign conducting materials.
One type of terminal block accepts wires that are prepared only by removing (stripping) a short length of insulation from the end. An insulator, also called a Dielectric, is a material that resists the flow of Electric current. Another type accepts wires that have ring or spade terminal lugs crimped onto the wires. Printed circuit board (PCB) mounted terminal blocks allow individual wires to be connected to the circuit board. A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces PCB mounted terminal blocks are soldered to the board, but they are available in a pull-apart version that allows the wire-connecting half of the block to be unplugged from the part that is soldered to the PCB.
Crimp-on terminals
Most types of crimp-on terminals (or lugs) are attached to wires to allow the wires to be easily connected to screw terminals and fast-on or quick-disconnect terminals. There are also crimp-on terminals for connecting two wires together either permanently or with disconnect capability. Crimp-on terminals are attached by inserting the stripped end of a stranded wire into the tubular portion of the terminal. A wire is a single usually cylindrical, elongated string of drawn Metal. The tubular portion of the terminal is then compressed tightly around the wire or crimped by squeezing it with a special crimping pliers. Pliers are Hand tools designed primarily for gripping objects by using Leverage.
Insulation displacement connectors
Since stripping the insulation from wires is time-consuming, many connectors intended for rapid assembly use insulation-displacement connectors so that insulation need not be removed from the wire. An insulation displacement connector or Insulation piercing connector is a connector that pierces the insulation on a Wire to make the connection removing the need These generally take the form of a fork-shaped opening in the terminal, into which the insulated wire is pressed and which cut through the insulation to contact the conductor within. To make these connections reliably on a production line, special tools are used which accurately control the forces applied during assembly. If properly assembled, the resulting terminations are gas-tight and will last the life of the product. A common example is the multi-conductor flat ribbon cable used in computer disk drives; to terminate each of the many (approximately 40) wires individually would be slow and error-prone, but an insulation displacement connector can terminate all the wires in (literally) one stroke. Another very common use is so-called "punch down" blocks used for terminating telephone wiring.
Insulation displacement connectors are usually used with small conductors for signal purposes and at low voltage. Power conductors carrying more than a few amperes are more reliably terminated with other means, though "hot tap" press-on connectors find some use in automotive applications for additions to existing wiring.
Plug and socket connectors
Plug and socket connectors are usually made up of a male plug and a female socket, although hermaphroditic connectors exist, such as the original IBM token ring LAN connector. Token ring Local area network (LAN technology is a local area network protocol which resides at the Data link layer Plugs generally have one or more pins or prongs that are inserted into openings in the mating socket. The connection between the mating metal parts must be sufficiently tight to make a good electrical connection and complete the circuit. When working with multi-pin connectors, it is helpful to have a pinout diagram to identify the wire or circuit node connected to each pin. Pinout is a term used in Electronics to describe how an Electrical connector is wired
Component and device connectors
Electrical and electronic components and devices sometimes have plug and socket connectors or terminal blocks, but individual screw terminals and fast-on or quick-disconnect terminals are more common. Small components have bare lead wires for soldering. They are manufactured using casting
Commonly used connectors
8P8C connector
8P8C is short for "eight positions, eight conductors", and so an 8P8C modular connector (plug or jack) is a modular connector with eight positions, all containing conductors. The 8 Position 8 Contact (8P8C modular plugs and sockets are communications connectors Modular connector is the name given to a family of Electrical connectors examples of which are pictured The 8P8C modular plugs and jacks look very similar to the plugs and jacks used for FCC's registered jack RJ45 variants, although the true and extremely uncommon RJ45 is not really compatible with 8P8C modular connectors. The 8 Position 8 Contact (8P8C modular plugs and sockets are communications connectors It neither uses all eight conductors (but only two of them for wires plus two for shorting a programming resistor) nor does it fit into 8P8C because the true RJ45 is "keyed". The connector is probably most famous for its use in Ethernet and widely used on CAT5 cables. Ethernet is a family of frame -based Computer networking technologies for Local area networks (LANs Category 5 cable, commonly known as Cat 5, is a Twisted pair cable type designed for high signal integrity
D-subminature connectors
The D-subminiature electrical connector is commonly used for the RS 232 serial port on modems and IBM compatible computers. The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of Electrical connector used particularly in Computers Calling them "subminiature" was appropriate In Telecommunications, RS-232 (Recommended Standard 232 is a standard for serial binary data signals connecting between a DTE ( Data Terminal Equipment In Computing, a serial port is a Serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one Bit at a time (contrast Modem (from mo dulator- dem odulator is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode Digital information IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. The D-subminature connector is used in many different applications, for computers, telecommunications, and test and measurement instruments. A few examples are monitors (MGA, CGA, EGA), the Commodore 64, MSX, Apple II, Amiga and Atari joysticks and mice, and game consoles such as Atari, Sega and Amiga. Mga (Мга is an Urban-type settlement in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. MSX was the name of a standardized Home computer architecture in the 1980s The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. is a multinational Video game Software and Hardware development company and a former Home computer
USB connectors
The Universal Serial Bus is a serial bus standard to interface devices, founded in 1996. It is currently widely used among PCs, Apple Macintosh and many other devices. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc There are several types of USB connectors, and some have been added as the specification has progressed. The most commonly used is the (male) series "A" plug on peripherals, when the cable is fixed to the peripheral. For an account of the words periphery and peripheral as they are used in biology sociology politics computer hardware and other fields see the If there is no cable fixed to the peripheral, the peripheral always needs to have a USB "B" socket. In this case a USB "A" plug to a USB "B" plug cable would be needed. USB "A" sockets are always used on the host PC and the USB "B" sockets on the peripherals. It is a 4-pin connector, surrounded by a shield. There are several other connectors in use, the mini-A, mini- B and mini-AB plug and socket (added in the On-The-Go Supplement to the USB 2. 0 Specification).
Power connectors
See Domestic AC power plugs and sockets, NEMA connectors, Industrial and multiphase power plugs and sockets for discussions of connectors used for electric power. Industrial and multiphase plugs and sockets provide a connection to the electrical mains rated at higher voltages and currents than household plugs and sockets Power connectors must protect people from accidental contact with energized conductors. A power connector is an electrical Connector designed to carry a significant amount of electrical power, usually as DC or low-frequency AC. Power connectors often include a safety ground connection as well as the power conductors. In Electrical engineering, the term ground or earth has several meanings depending on the specific application areas In larger sizes, these connectors must also safely contain any arc produced when an energized circuit is disconnected or may require interlocking to prevent opening a live circuit. An electric arc is an Electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive
Radio frequency connectors
Connectors used at radio frequencies must not change the impedance of the transmission line of which they are part, otherwise reflections and losses will result. A transmission line is the material medium or structure that forms all or part of a path from one place to another for directing the transmission of energy A radio-frequency connector must not allow external signals into the circuit, and must prevent leakage of energy out of the circuit. An RF connector is an Electrical connector designed to work at Radio frequencies in the multi-megahertz range At lower radio frequencies simple connectors can be used with success, but as the radio frequency increases (so that the dimensions of the connector are getting close to a small fraction of one wavelength, connector design becomes increasingly critical. In Physics wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating Wave of a given Frequency. At UHF and above, silver-plating of connectors is common to reduce losses.
For Wi-Fi antennae the R-TNC connectors are used. Wi-Fi (ˈwaɪfaɪ is the trade name for the popular wireless technology used An electrical connector is a conductive device for joining Electrical circuits together A BNC connector is common for radio and test equipment used up to about 1 GHz. The BNC ( Bayonet Neill Concelman) connector is a very common type of RF connector used for terminating Coaxial cable.
See also
- Audio and video connector
- D-subminiature
- DIN plug
- Gender of connectors and fasteners
- RJ-XX connector
- Wire nut
- 4 mm plug
- Adapter
References
External links
- Lessons In Electric Circuits
- The connectors and their industrial uses Find information on BNC, Wire, Power, USB, Cables and Molex Connectors. Audio connectors and video connectors are Electrical connectors for carrying an Audio signal or Video signal, either in an analog The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of Electrical connector used particularly in Computers Calling them "subminiature" was appropriate A DIN connector is a connector that was originally standardized by the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN the German national standards organization In Electrical and mechanical trades and manufacturing each of a pair of mating connectors or Fasteners is conventionally assigned the designation male A registered jack ( RJ) is a standardized physical interface — both jack construction and wiring pattern — for connecting telecommunications equipment (commonly a Telephone Wire-Nut is a registered trademark of Ideal Industries for a twist-on wire connector A banana connector (commonly banana plug for the male, banana jack for the female) is a single- Wire (one conductor An adapter or adaptor (both spellings in use in UK and US English[http//www
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