On Feb 6, 13:45, Ethan Dicks wrote:
  One thing to watch for - pin diameter.  I made my own
connector for a
 VT220 out of a pair of drive power connectors, and it works fine, but
 I think the VT220 end got stretched - now that I have a real set of
 TTY cables, they don't fit in my terminal.  I tried to sort of compress
 them back into place, but I think I'll have to remove the board and
 remove the connector from the board before I can get clear access to the
 pins.  OTOH, I could try to make a pin squeezer out of tubing... 
There are some non-AMP equivalents that don't seem to be made quite as
well, perhaps you had some of those?  I've cursed those on occasions when
I've had to make the opposite-to-normal gender of power connector.
    You can still
get the pin inserts and socket inserts, of course. 
 Got part numbers? 
 
AMP changed the numbers at some time in the last few years, but I think
some of these may still be correct:
  female contacts AMP 163304-2 (18-20 AWG)
  female contacts AMP 163306-2 (14-18 AWG)
  male contacts   AMP 163305-2 (18-20 AWG)
  male contacts   AMP 163307-2 (14-18 AWG)
AMP used to have a pretty good website.  A bit graphics-heavy, and a little
tedious at times, but al the info was there.  Tried that?
  I'm also looking for part numbers for Berg
connector
 bits - somewhere I have the tool that makes the same cables as DEC did
 with the black Berg shells.  What I lack is the female crimp-on "pins". 
Funny you mention that, I was looking for the same thing the other evening.
 I can find the pins and shells but the biggest two-row shells I can find
easily are only 8+8.  I want 20+20, of course.  And I can't find those
cable grips at all...
I did find a very similar product (there are lots that nearly fit the bill
but this looks closest) made by Methode.  They do 20+20 in their MEMTF
series that look very like black Berg ones, and the female crimp "pins" are
gold-plated like the better Berg ones.  Still no cable clamp, though.
Fujitsu so something similar (M100 series), and there's a cable clamp, but
it looks kind of like a squashed D-connector shell -- not what I want for
my BC101V cables and oters that enter from the side of a board.
Harwin also do a range, called "C-Grid III", you'd want the 90142 series
(dual row).
I used to get BERG (DuPont, now owned by the Framatome Group, FCI)
connectors from a company in the UK called Electrospeed.  Sadly, they no
longer seem to have the right connectors in the catalogue, but I found the
part numbers in the Newark catalogue -- which might be more helpful to you.
  They're also in the Farnell catalogue.
The housings are "Bergcon" "Mini-Latch housing, 65043-series double row,
0.100" centers":
Newark    Berg
part      part       rows
89F4606   65043-035  2+2
89F4605   65043-034  3+3
89F4604   65043-033  4+4
89F4603   65043-032  5+5
89F4602   65043-031  6+6
89F4601   65043-030  7+7
89F4600   65043-029  8+8
89F4599   65043-027 10+10
There are bigger sizes too.  The female pins are "Mini-PV crimp-to-wire
receptacles":
98F2828   47747-000   22-26 AWG    std spring force    100? tin
98F4590   48266-000   18-20 AWG    std spring force    30? gold
98F4588   48235-000    ...  AWG    std spring force    30? gold
98F5796   48238-000   28-32 AWG    std spring force    30? gold
89F4587   48234-000    2x26 AWG    high spring force   30? gold
^^ typo?  I don't know
50F8733   48236-000   28-32 AWG    ultrahigh spring force    30? gold
50F8734   48239-000   or 2x26 AWG  ultrahigh spring force    30? gold
04F1609   47750-000   22-26 AWG    ultrahigh spring force    100? tin
You can also buy the daisy chain jumper wires on reels.  Remember those?
 Used to make up the vital link on the BC01V, the link from Tx- to Rx- on
DLV11-J's, and for loopback plugs.  A snip at UKP166.36 per reel.  The
"lightweight rugged handtools" in two shpaes and five exciting sizes, range
 from UKP385 to UKP503.  Thankfully the rest of the
range, the connectors 
themselves, is more affordable!  Still no cable clamps,
though.
--
Pete                                            Peter Turnbull
                                                Network Manager
                                                University of York