Re: [EE] measuring / reverse engineering a connector housing?
Sean Breheny <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.hardware.microcontrollers.pic |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <CAE8uMMozFic2Y_boQN_hu9grSEnV_kvTiQNer1mJQVwgptBTcg@mail.gmail.com> |
I was involved in doing this once (getting a second source for a very expensive connector which we wanted to modify in ways which would avoid infringing the patents on the original). We were going to be buying several hundred thousand of them and the company who did the reverse engineering, custom modifications, and volume production was in Asia (I don't remember whether PRC or Taiwan). In the end it worked but it required major hand-holding by us. It was a connector with very special requirements (blind mate, thousands of insertions, tolerance to dust, very high current as well as some signal contacts) so it may well be that you will have an easier time if yours is more run-of-the-mill. But some of the things the company did were shady - we explicitly said that we needed silver plating on the power contacts. The first samples showed fretting behavior (randomly varying contact resistance, sometimes very high). I did a chemical surface test for silver and it was negative. I did another for tin and it was positive. The company swore up and down that they had sent us silver-plated contacts. We then had the samples tested at a real lab and they were indeed tin plated. Finally the company admitted "oh yeah, they were tin plated". The next batch were indeed silver plated. Sean On Wed, Jan 29, 2025 at 12:24 PM Jason White < [email protected]> wrote: > I have encountered a situation where I'd like to duplicate and modify a > connector that is produced overseas by an unknown manufacturer. > > See attached image. > > I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with this? > > I think what I'd need to do is approach a connector manufacturer and ask > them to carry out all of that work. However, I'm open to other paths. I > wonder if maybe a measurement/machine shop might be a suitable avenue to > produce an accurate 3D model of the original connector. > > -- > Jason White > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist