Unfunny Connections
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Even (presumably) competent users are not entirely immune to this. Example: Expensive video cameras are locked up between uses, so (trained, competent) users have to plug in a variety of power, video (specifically, circular S-video) and audio cables. Guy in charge: "The connectors are keyed so they only fit one way, but look to see if they're aligned right before you try to put them together. Don't just twist until they fit, because you'll bend the pins; then I'll have to cut the connectors off and solder new ones on. Don't make me do that."
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<whisper>Don't tell anybody, but that was just my retelling of the lecture from a few years ago. He may not have actually said that.</whisper>
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Appreciated. But the phase, the phrase is... It had better be one of the few things that outlast mankind (and now, to ruin the mood) along with "don't make me push this button".
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specifically, circular S-video
That reminds me... My niece wanted to play on my computer one time, but I had unplugged everything from it. I allowed her to plug everything in herself, and told her to look that everything fits. She did fine except for the PS/2s, which she tried to push in by turning them around. She bent every single pin, of course. (Luckily I could put them straight.) I couldn't be mad at her, because it wasn't her fault - she was just inexperienced, and designing round plugs/sockets for an interface that doesn't fit independently of turning them around their axis is simply worng, and more so if you can destroy them with no more force than usual. (Good: T[R[R]]S, maybe ok: German wall plugs, tolerable: DIN connectors (they're just sturdy enough you can't bend them with usual force), bad: PS/2)
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Also good: RCA
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@PWolff did say "that doesn't fit independently of turning them around their axis." All of these do fit independently of turning them around their axis, thus they are Doing It Right from the start.
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exactly my point! those are GOOD circular connectors.
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exactly my point! those are GOOD circular connectors.
The rule that can be inferred seems to be "don't make a circular connector that isn't strictly coaxial".
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Protip: N->PL259 doesn't work.
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No, a non-coaxial connector should be okay as long as you can insert it to the point at which it doesn't go in any further, then rotate it until you find the correct orientation which allows it to be inserted fully, all without damaging the connector.
I.E. a combination of twisting and pushing should be adequate to seat the connector without any chance of destroying it in the process.
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PL259
"Good circular connectors are coaxial" does not imply "all coaxial circular connectors are good."
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Eh they're OK... As long as you don't try to plug them into the wrong type of connector.......
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... or have to solder one to a piece of coax, or use one above HF.
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IIRC, PL259/SO239 have impedance mismatches and insertion losses that start becoming significant above about 50MHz, or so. They're still fairly common (or were back when I was active) on 2m radios, but IME anything above that generally uses better quality connectors, like N.
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IIRC, PL259/SO239 have impedance mismatches and insertion losses that start becoming significant above about 50MHz, or so. They're still fairly common (or were back when I was active) on 2m radios, but IME anything above that generally uses better quality connectors, like N.
Hmm. Never had any issues on VHF/UHF with them, but we aren't really running high power (only 100w max). They're pretty much the SOP for coax in the local ham community... and the CAP one for that matter...
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Never had any issues on VHF/UHF with them,
Just for whatever, I walked out to the garage and looked in the storage bin that has my old Icom mobile radios. 2m and 220 have SO239s; as expected, the 440 has an N. (Since I never had anything permanently installed, I used whatever-to-BNC adapters on the radios for quick disconnects, and just used BNCs on everything else.)
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Yeah, on the radio side the radios I use all have N connectors, but almost every antenna I've seen has SO239/PL259 (whatever the male one is, I can never remember...) on the end of the coax. At least in the mag-mount world, which is my world because modifying the vehicle is a no-go......
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SO239/PL259 (whatever the male one is, I can never remember...)
PL - plug; SO - socket. At least I guess that's what the letters stand for; it works for that particular pair of connectors.
the mag-mount world
Mine, too — not that I couldn't have modified the vehicles, but I never got around to it, and newer vehicles have warnings about radios interfering with the car electronics, and blah, blah. Lots of excuses, but mostly just lazy. That said, I got Larsen mag-mounts with BNCs, though it's been a long time; they might have come with PL259s that I cut off and replaced.
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PL - plug; SO - socket
Huh. TIL. That makes remembering that much easier indeed...
Mine, too — not that I couldn't have modified the vehicles, but I never got around to it, and newer vehicles have warnings about radios interfering with the car electronics, and blah, blah. Lots of excuses, but mostly just lazy. That said, I got Larsen mag-mounts with BNCs, though it's been a long time; they might have come with PL259s that I cut off and replaced.
Yeaaahhh... /me is a PUCS so none of the vehicles I own are actually... mine....
Drilling a hole in the car to put the radio itself in is pushing things as is
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:/ is not confused...)
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UHF Plug PL259
Standard radio communication connector. Suits cable with 10/11mm diameter such as URM67. To use with thinner cable such as RG58, use the reducer, below. Size 38 x 19mm diameter.
Over time, short or long periods of, a thing that is made can be made or needs to be made smaller for various raisons having a considerable knock on effect (not unlike that of chucking a planet sized rock into an idillic mill pond). The two primary ones being:
- Improvements in manufacturing technology
- Economies of scale.
Eg. SMD (Surface Mounted Devices) were very expensive when introduced. They had considerable benefits over that that they were replacing. Retooling costs were prohibitive, but eventually the tide was turned and the Rubicon crossed. Now they are de rigueur making it difficult for the hardware equivalent of "script kiddies" to "get in there and hack at stuff" with their 5mm tipped 250W soldering iron, as per someother post elsewhere in the TDWTF
What this space for the destiny / fate of USB Connectors: First there was The USB Connector, then there was The Mini USB Connector. Now there is The Micro USB Connector. In a few days time, when The Pico USB Connector is de riguer, some young spark is going to come across an original USB and go
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So, how do you feel about vampire taps?
(Before anyone asks, I haven't been in the business long enough to have actually worked anywhere that used thickwire, but even as late as 2002 the A+ study books still discussed it, and I've heard the occasional horror story from oldtimers about it. My impression is that it was one of those things that sounded like a good idea at the time, and it even made a certain amount of sense given the available technology, but it still sounds odd to someone used to modern networking hardware.)
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You mean that has a name?! I rather thought I was a genius for doing that, though admittedly (now that I Googled it) my implementation wasn't nearly so... nice.
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At the university I went to (has since dropped computer science. Idiots.) they used thicknet with vampire taps, and they ran it in the walls, so there was a loop that came into each office that had to be tapped... I later left and worked at a company where we set up thinnet. They both were horrible. The company later scrapped the thinnet and went to 10 base T.
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When was that, 1987?
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Sounds about right.
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At the university I went to...they used thicknet with vampire taps...worked at a company where we set up thinnet...later scrapped the thinnet and went to 10 base T.
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So true. I really need to figure out what I'm going to do with my fleet of computers...
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@Tsaukpaetra said:
my fleet of computers
see if they float......
falling that, a VAX unit would make a decent kinetic impactor when dropped from low earth orbit.
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tried? succeeded.
the second try at lease
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the second try at lease
I know economy is pretty bad but you can't even afford to buy a post attempt outright?
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@Tsaukpaetra said in Unfunny Connections:
So true. I really need to figure out what I'm going to do with my fleet of computers...
Status: Actually, still wondering. I've succeeded in getting Linux mostly-working on them, albeit without accelerated graphics (because fuck ATI, right?).
Heavy paperweights, maybe I'll just donate them to AZStRUT...
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I connected a USB on my first try today.
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@Zecc said in Unfunny Connections:
I connected a USB on my first try today.
It's cheating if it was USB-C.
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@loopback0 No, it was one of those wireless mouse transmitter thingies1, which makes it extra hard.
1 Vacuumed once.
BNC connector - Wikipedia
