Case Mount Female 4-Pin

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stevenblanc
 
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Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by stevenblanc »

Hey folks,

So I'm just about finished putting this thing together and I realise that using a 4-pin JST connector in a case setting is just not going to work.

I found these:
Panel Mount Female
http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/Connec ... Receptacle

Male:
http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/Connec ... -Terminals

But I'm pretty sure these are WAY OVERKILL.

Does anyone know of something similar with an external (outside of case) diameter of 11mm or less?

Cheers,


Steven

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stevenblanc
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by stevenblanc »

Maybe something like this:
http://www.directindustry.com/prod/dong ... 79929.html

But I can't find these retail anywhere.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

There are thousands of connectors out there, and if you aren't working to an established standard, you can choose pretty much anything you want.

In this case, the smallest option is probably the 4-pin RJ-11 phone connector. If you want circular connectors, take a look at the mini-DIN family.. those are the ones that used to be keyboard and mouse connectors before everything went USB.

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jcgoodman
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by jcgoodman »

adafruit_support_mike wrote:There are thousands of connectors out there, and if you aren't working to an established standard, you can choose pretty much anything you want.
Also, if you aren't working to an established standard, it's sometimes helpful to *avoid* commonly-used jacks. The advantage of RJ-11 is that it's really common and easy to get spare cables and parts for. The disadvantage is that if somebody stupidly plugs your project into a land line, either it'll blow up immediately or it'll wait until the phone rings.

I like mini-DIN. Was only used for low-voltage devices, is pretty much obsolete, but still easy to get parts for. Hell, I've got a couple dozen DIN cables in my basement. mini-DIN 4 is commonly known as S-video; mini-DIN 6 is PS/2 mouse/video. Only problem with them is the cables fall out pretty easily.

1chicagodave
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by 1chicagodave »

jcgoodman wrote:
Also, if you aren't working to an established standard, it's sometimes helpful to *avoid* commonly-used jacks.
Agreed. That does help to avoid catastrophic mistakes.

However....if you're the only one that will be using this (and maybe put a warning on the box) - USB has four pins/wires.

http://www.adafruit.com/products/908#Technical_Details
image.jpg
image.jpg (15.74 KiB) Viewed 732 times
**Again, probably not a good idea if anyone might accidentally try connecting it to a computer or phone charger. :shock:

Otherwise, I might check Sparkfun. They also have connectors similar to what you linked to above.

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stevenblanc
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by stevenblanc »

You guys are amazing,

Greatly appreciated.

Both options are great, and while I am sorely tempted to use s video to transmit, I have an entire box of telephone cables, outlets and cable ends in the garage. So telephone cable it is!

Cheers!

Steven

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stevenblanc
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by stevenblanc »

So this opens up a whole new world for me.

Considering that any 4-pin socket would work, I am assuming that I could in fact drill two lovely little holes and use a red and white RCA cable for this connection. But I suppose this would cause problems if they were connected the wrong way around.

1chicagodave
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by 1chicagodave »

If you really want small and simple...you could also use a TRRS Phono plug.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11580
TRRS
TRRS
image.jpg (9.63 KiB) Viewed 703 times
What are the four connections? (Data? Power? Etc..?)

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

stevenblanc wrote:I am assuming that I could in fact drill two lovely little holes and use a red and white RCA cable for this connection. But I suppose this would cause problems if they were connected the wrong way around.
You can get color-coded RCA jacks, but yeah, Murphy's Law scoffs at such things.

My personal choice is to use RCA jacks for signal-center/GND-outside connections. RCA connectors are concentric (the outer connection completely surrounds the inner one) making them good for signals that need to be shielded from external noise. Standard RCA cables have a central wire with a stranded shield wrapped around it, and you reduce noise by connecting the shield to GND. It's the less-expensive cousin of BNC connectors and shielded coax.

Twisted-pair cable (CAT5 phone wire being the most common) is also good at reducing noise, but works especially well when you send differential signals through the pairs.

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stevenblanc
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by stevenblanc »

So it boils down to RJ-11 being the least likely to cause me problems while maintaining a small form factor.

However, the RJ-11 is the connector that connects the phone to the wall. Usually the connector that connects the phone to the handset is even smaller and also has 4 wires. Do you know what the correct code for this connector is? I found a document that seems to call it 4P2C, but results for that don't seem to be accurate.

Cheers,


Steven

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stevenblanc
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by stevenblanc »

What are the four connections? (Data? Power? Etc..?)
It's technically 3 connections, the fourth wire isn't used but I'm trying to avoid hanging wires:

http://learn.adafruit.com/adalight-diy- ... g/wiring-1

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jcgoodman
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by jcgoodman »

However, the RJ-11 is the connector that connects the phone to the wall. Usually the connector that connects the phone to the handset is even smaller and also has 4 wires. Do you know what the correct code for this connector is? I found a document that seems to call it 4P2C, but results for that don't seem to be accurate.


Careful! A phone handset only needs two wires, and many handset cables have only two wires in the cable, and/or two contacts in the plug.

4p2c means "4 position, 2 conductor": there are four parallel grooves in the plug, but only two have metal contacts. What you would want is 4p4c: same shape plug, but four conductors.

4p2c is often unofficially called RJ9; 4p4c is unofficially "RJ10" or "RJ22".

If all you need is three conductors, a 1/8" stereo headphone jack might work nicely too.

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stevenblanc
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by stevenblanc »

Hmm. It's a toss up between the 4p4c port and the stereo.

I did find this lovely little piece on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-5-Stereo ... 1270274424

That would install with little to no effort and, at those dimensions, would probably be the easiest to squeeze into an Altoids tin with an uno.

Cheers!

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stevenblanc
 
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Re: Case Mount Female 4-Pin

Post by stevenblanc »

So, RadioShack almost had the correct parts in store but they couldn't get both the size and the style right! Going to have to try again. But for anyone interested I did some test cuts with a mono jack just to see how it would fit:
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