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I've always heard them called DuPont connectors. Might be a hobbyist vs. professional thing; I use them in hobby projects, so am probably exposed to the questi

I've always heard them called DuPont connectors. Might be a hobbyist vs. professional thing; I use them in hobby projects, so am probably exposed to the questionable vendors more than a professional would be. I was looking for crimping tools relatively recently and was surprised to find that reputable vendors don't call them DuPont connectors, even in passing. As far as I can tell, they have no name that everyone would recognize and that lets manufacturers steer clear of naming other companies, despite being so ubiquitous. (I suppose this is a common problem with connectors. Someone could tell me "it's a Molex connector", and I'd know what they mean -- the one that supplies power to pre-SATA hard drives -- but of course Molex makes thousands of different connectors, so it's really a terrible name for that one specifically.)

xnyan 6y ago
As someone who came into electronics in a pretty indirect manner (started designing software for electronics testing, hard to be good at it without at least a decent understanding of how it works), connecter names/terminology/nomenclature proved to be one of the most annoying parts. I ended up doing a lot of reverse engineering to understand how things worked, and I hope that when a prospective EE is going through their ABET accredited program that they have some class that breaks it all down for them, but I had no such luck so just sort of brute forced my way into learning all connector types I encountered. For anyone who wants to know - turns out, there a surprisingly limited number of types of connectors that are commonly used in most electronics today. You can go to any decent electronics supply outfit (mouser, digikey and many others) and in the space of a few hours familiarize yourself with most of what you need to know just by clicking through the connectors category and sorting by number of parts in stock.
- stevenhuang 6y ago
  That's a good tip for the in-stock browsing. Would also be interested in a guide on common connector terminology for hobbyist makers, please share if you find one or write one up!
  - sokoloff 6y ago
    This one is pretty decent. https://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/Identify-Electrical-Connectors.html https://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/Identify-Electrica... I long for a better wire-to-wire answer than JST-SM.
  - auxym 6y ago
    Not done yet, but a prominent redditor on r/electronics is writing this: http://connectorbook.com/ http://connectorbook.com/, which I'm looking forward to.
    - stevenhuang 6y ago
      That's fantastic, exactly what I'm looking for. I especially love this: http://connectorbook.com/identification.html http://connectorbook.com/identification.html Looking forward to the completion of the book.
- bacon_waffle 6y ago
  > I hope that when a prospective EE is going through their ABET accredited program that they have some class that breaks it all down for them That wasn't the case in the 2000s when I got my ECE degree (more-or-less EE, but with many course choices replaced by CS curriculum), from a state university in the US. EE is a very broad field, lots of grads won't need to know names of connectors for instance.
  - markrages 6y ago
    That's technician stuff and won't be taught as engineering. Maybe a BSEET degree would cover it.
- imtringued 6y ago
  I've had the exact opposite experience. There are so many connectors (thousands of connector families) finding the right one is extremely difficult.
consp 6y ago
Molex is also a misnomer in the same way. The original is the amp/te mate-n-lock and the comparable connector introduced later is the molex 8981. There is also an incompatible molex connector with a straight side which might explain the naming.

xnyan 6y ago

As someone who came into electronics in a pretty indirect manner (started designing software for electronics testing, hard to be good at it without at least a decent understanding of how it works), connecter names/terminology/nomenclature proved to be one of the most annoying parts. I ended up doing a lot of reverse engineering to understand how things worked, and I hope that when a prospective EE is going through their ABET accredited program that they have some class that breaks it all down for them, but I had no such luck so just sort of brute forced my way into learning all connector types I encountered. For anyone who wants to know - turns out, there a surprisingly limited number of types of connectors that are commonly used in most electronics today. You can go to any decent electronics supply outfit (mouser, digikey and many others) and in the space of a few hours familiarize yourself with most of what you need to know just by clicking through the connectors category and sorting by number of parts in stock.

stevenhuang 6y ago
That's a good tip for the in-stock browsing. Would also be interested in a guide on common connector terminology for hobbyist makers, please share if you find one or write one up!
- sokoloff 6y ago
  This one is pretty decent. https://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/Identify-Electrical-Connectors.html https://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/Identify-Electrica... I long for a better wire-to-wire answer than JST-SM.
- auxym 6y ago
  Not done yet, but a prominent redditor on r/electronics is writing this: http://connectorbook.com/ http://connectorbook.com/, which I'm looking forward to.
  - stevenhuang 6y ago
    That's fantastic, exactly what I'm looking for. I especially love this: http://connectorbook.com/identification.html http://connectorbook.com/identification.html Looking forward to the completion of the book.
bacon_waffle 6y ago
> I hope that when a prospective EE is going through their ABET accredited program that they have some class that breaks it all down for them That wasn't the case in the 2000s when I got my ECE degree (more-or-less EE, but with many course choices replaced by CS curriculum), from a state university in the US. EE is a very broad field, lots of grads won't need to know names of connectors for instance.
- markrages 6y ago
  That's technician stuff and won't be taught as engineering. Maybe a BSEET degree would cover it.
imtringued 6y ago
I've had the exact opposite experience. There are so many connectors (thousands of connector families) finding the right one is extremely difficult.

consp 6y ago

Molex is also a misnomer in the same way. The original is the amp/te mate-n-lock and the comparable connector introduced later is the molex 8981. There is also an incompatible molex connector with a straight side which might explain the naming.