27 Feb
2020
27 Feb
'20
6:37 p.m.
I work at an astronomy facility. I get to do some fun dumpster diving.
I recently have pulled out of the trash a plugboard with a male and a
female D-Sub 52 connector. 3 rows of pins, 17-18-17. I took the
connectors off the board: there's nothing back there, so this thing only
ever existed so you could plug the random cable you found into it and its
friends to see what the cable fit.
I can't find much evidence that a 52-pin D-Sub ever existed.
Is this just Yet Another Physics Experiment thing where, hey, if your
instrument already costs three million dollars, what's a couple of grand
for machining custom connectors? Or was it once a thing?
(also posted to COFF)
Adam
27 Feb
27 Feb
7:20 p.m.
If your reference to D-sub means the connectors originally made by
ITT-Cannon, I can offer the following from a cutout from a trade catalog
that I have carried around these last 30 years as ammunition against
those who erroneously use the term DB-9!
I wasn't sure, so I had to find it and can confirm that there was no
'standard' D-sub of 52 pins in 3 rows.? The ones available were:
DA15, DB25, DC37, and DD50, that latter of which had 50 pins in three
rows. There was of course the famously mis-labelled DE9.
Could you have mis-counted the pins?
cheers,
Nigel
On 27/02/2020 18:37, Adam Thornton via cctalk wrote:
I work at an astronomy facility. I get to do some fun
dumpster diving.
I recently have pulled out of the trash a plugboard with a male and a
female D-Sub 52 connector. 3 rows of pins, 17-18-17. I took the
connectors off the board: there's nothing back there, so this thing only
ever existed so you could plug the random cable you found into it and its
friends to see what the cable fit.
I can't find much evidence that a 52-pin D-Sub ever existed.
Is this just Yet Another Physics Experiment thing where, hey, if your
instrument already costs three million dollars, what's a couple of grand
for machining custom connectors? Or was it once a thing?
(also posted to COFF)
Adam
--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
You can reach me by voice on Skype: TILBURY2591
If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday
This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me to you, it
will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number of system
administrators along the way.
Nigel Johnson <nw.johnson at ieee.org>
Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message
7:41 p.m.
On Feb 27, 2020, at 7:20 PM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
If your reference to D-sub means the connectors originally made by ITT-Cannon, I can
offer the following from a cutout from a trade catalog that I have carried around these
last 30 years as ammunition against those who erroneously use the term DB-9!
I wasn't sure, so I had to find it and can confirm that there was no
'standard' D-sub of 52 pins in 3 rows. The ones available were:
DA15, DB25, DC37, and DD50, that latter of which had 50 pins in three rows. There was of
course the famously mis-labelled DE9.
I didn't realize DD50 isn't two rows. Interesting.
Ok, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-subminiature has more. Apparently there are three
flavors: normal density (2 rows except for DD), high density (3 rows except for DD which
has four) and "double density" -- like high density but with more pins in each
row.
And the table shows Adam's connector, a DB-52 in the double density series.
paul
7:27 p.m.
On Feb 27, 2020, at 6:37 PM, Adam Thornton via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
I work at an astronomy facility. I get to do some fun dumpster diving.
I recently have pulled out of the trash a plugboard with a male and a
female D-Sub 52 connector. 3 rows of pins, 17-18-17. I took the
connectors off the board: there's nothing back there, so this thing only
ever existed so you could plug the random cable you found into it and its
friends to see what the cable fit.
I can't find much evidence that a 52-pin D-Sub ever existed.
Is this just Yet Another Physics Experiment thing where, hey, if your
instrument already costs three million dollars, what's a couple of grand
for machining custom connectors? Or was it once a thing?
No idea. I just got a new L-Com catalog, which has a large section of "D-Sub"
connectors and cables. It lists the following sizes:
2-row: 9, 15, 25, 37, 50 pin
3-row: 15, 26, 44, 62, 78 pin
So 52 pins is halfway between two standard sizes. For some definition of
"standard", of course. 2-row 9, 15, and 25 pin are common, 37 is for RS-422 if
I remember right but I haven't seen it in ages. The only familiar "high
density" (3-row) connector is the 15 pin one for VGA.
Those connectors correspond to the standard D-sub shells DE, DA, DB, DC, and DD in that
order -- as many people here know, the common 9-pin serial connector is not actually a
"DB-9" connector but rather a DE-9.
Is the connector a DC shell with pin spacing increased from the standard 62 pin pitch? Or
is it a DC-62 with some positions left unused? A picture would be interesting.
paul
7:51 p.m.
On Thu, 27 Feb 2020, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
No idea. I just got a new L-Com catalog, which has a
large section of "D-Sub" connectors and cables. It lists the following sizes:
2-row: 9, 15, 25, 37, 50 pin
3-row: 15, 26, 44, 62, 78 pin
So 52 pins is halfway between two standard sizes. For some definition
of "standard", of course. 2-row 9, 15, and 25 pin are common, 37 is for
RS-422 if I remember right but I haven't seen it in ages.
A trivial data point:
DC-37 was used by PC (5150), XT (5160) for external floppy drive,
Used a lot of those, especially for tape drives and infrequently used
drives, such as 3.25" and 3", 720K 5.25", 100tpi 5.25", 67.5 tpi
3.5",
etc.
also used even by IBM on some add-on external floppies for some PS/2s.
DC-37 was also on the externally-controlled Canon CX printer engines, so I
had some cables and even switchboxes for those.
(Cordata/CoronaDataSystems, Eiconscript (both HP and Postscript
emulation!), JLaser, etc.)
Anybody have any interest in those?
The Amiga used a couple of D23 connectors. I cut up some DB25s when I
needed them.
-- as many people here know, the common 9-pin
serial connector is not actually a "DB-9" connector but rather a DE-9.
When I had a lot of DB25 cables on hand, I had a few that only had pins in
place in positions 1-8 and 20. Would those 9 pins make it a "DB-9"? :-)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
8:26 p.m.
More in the trivia department, the DA15 was used for AUI interconnection
in the 10base-5, -2, and early -T days, as well as analog joysticks.
I'm surprised to see wikipedia saying that the high-density ones had DA
to DE designations, I have only seen them in catalogs with full part
numbers.? Could this be a backronym-style regression?
cheers,
Nigel
On 27/02/2020 19:51, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
On Thu, 27 Feb 2020, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
You can reach me by voice on Skype: TILBURY2591
If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday
This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me to you, it
will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number of system
administrators along the way.
Nigel Johnson <nw.johnson at ieee.org>
Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message
No idea.? I just got a new L-Com catalog, which
has a large section
of "D-Sub" connectors and cables.? It lists the following sizes:
2-row: 9, 15, 25, 37, 50 pin
3-row: 15, 26, 44, 62, 78 pin
So 52 pins is halfway between two standard sizes.? For some
definition of "standard", of course.? 2-row 9, 15, and 25 pin are
common, 37 is for RS-422 if I remember right but I haven't seen it in
ages.
A trivial data point:
DC-37 was used by PC (5150), XT (5160) for external floppy drive,
Used a lot of those, especially for tape drives and infrequently used
drives, such as 3.25" and 3", 720K 5.25", 100tpi 5.25", 67.5 tpi
3.5",
etc.
also used even by IBM on some add-on external floppies for some PS/2s.
DC-37 was also on the externally-controlled Canon CX printer engines,
so I had some cables and even switchboxes for those.
(Cordata/CoronaDataSystems, Eiconscript (both HP and Postscript
emulation!), JLaser, etc.)
Anybody have any interest in those?
The Amiga used a couple of D23 connectors.? I cut up some DB25s when I
needed them.
?-- as many people here know, the common 9-pin
serial connector is
not actually a "DB-9" connector but rather a DE-9.
When I had a lot of DB25 cables on hand, I had a few that only had
pins in place in positions 1-8 and 20.? Would those 9 pins make it a
"DB-9"?? :-)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred???????????? cisin at xenosoft.com
28 Feb
28 Feb
9:19 a.m.
On Feb 27, 2020, at 8:26 PM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
More in the trivia department, the DA15 was used for AUI interconnection in the 10base-5,
-2, and early -T days, as well as analog joysticks.
I'm surprised to see wikipedia saying that the high-density ones had DA to DE
designations, I have only seen them in catalogs with full part numbers. Could this be a
backronym-style regression?
DA through DE designates the shape of the connector shell, so this makes sense.
As the article mentions, D-sub shells were also used for mixed pin inserts, such as the
pin plus coax combinations used in early workstation monitor connectors. Same story:
standard shell, different pin insert within that shell.
paul
1587
days inactive
1588
days old
6 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
athornton＠gmail.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
nw.johnson＠ieee.org -
paulkoning＠comcast.net