Hi Jim... Basically, any Molex connector with 'ears' can be used as the
chassis connector (there are some w/o ears intended to mount onto printed
circuit boards.) The ears fold back as the connector body is pushed into
the mounting hole from the rear. They have small beveled edges that lock
the connector body in place. This means that you make one dimension of the
mounting hole slightly larger than the actual body dimension to give the
ears room-but not too much room.
The gender of any connector is determined not by the body but the pins
within the body. Each piece of the body WILL have a sort of gender in that
one would be called a plug and one a jack-but in the case of molex-and many
others-either piece can serve as either plug or jack. Which one you use for
which is a matter of personal preference. I work it this way: Since the
cable is subject to more stress and physical abuse than the chassis I use
the more solid male-like piece as the plug. The pins on this piece are much
more protected than the female-like shell of the other piece. Since I deem
the male pins more solid than the female pins, I put the females in that
protected plug body. Therefore, the chassis mounted piece has the male
pins. This is the opposite (pin-wise) of what is practiced on regular PC
disk drives, by the way. They use the bodies the way I do, but put the male
pins in the plug.
There is a very good kit available for molex connectors in two sizes: 0.092
inch and 0.063 inch (I never can keep the 2 & 3 straight-so it could be
0.093/etc.) This kit is priced 'right' and except for the extractor tool
works very well. A higher quality extractor tool is available (for each
size) I recommend-it is difficult enough to remove the pins, once set in a
body, with the 'good' tool.
The one caveat about molex connectors in general is that they are touchy
about oxidation resistance problems below five volts... but so are most
non-gold connectors.
These connectors seem cheap and flimsy-and they are... but they do a really
good job most of the time, and that's really what matters. I would not use
them for low power audio or any other low amplitude signals, but for
ordinary connections for power supplys or switching of 12V-or more-and so
on they are excellent connectors for the money.
72/73
Ed Tanton N4XY EMAIL: n4xy@avana.net TEL: (770)579-3933 V/MBX/FAX
189 Pioneer Trail
Marietta, GA 30068-3466
QRP-ARCI#7663 G-QRP#6779 OK-QRP#172 QRP-L#758 AdvRC#140
NORCAL#1779 NCDXF SEDXC
Life Member: ARRL AMSAT IDRA INDEXA QCWA
URL: Coming Sooner or Later
"Think you can, think you can't: either way you're right!" Henry Ford
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