5 ms·

D-sub has got to be one of the longest enduring connector standards I can think of, apart from wall outlets. They're from the 50s, originally for military use,

D-sub has got to be one of the longest enduring connector standards I can think of, apart from wall outlets. They're from the 50s, originally for military use, and we're still speccing them in new space hardware today. Now they've got coax/twinax, high power, fiber, and even pneumatic "contacts" if you know where to look (and can afford it). I can't say that they'd be my first choice, personally, but it's quite remarkable to see how well they've fared over the better part of a century.

paradox460 1y ago
Phone jacks. Invented in the late 19th century. Still in use today.
- zettabomb 1y ago
  I assume you're referring to the 1/4" jacks, not RJ series?
- EvanAnderson 1y ago
  I assume you're talking about these, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)
bluGill 1y ago
XLR used (mostly) in audio is also from the 1950s. The biggest problem with these standards is they are used for everything and so you cannot be sure that if the cable fits it will work. If a USB cable fits it will almost always work - but if it doesn't it will be obvious to your average idiot way (that is you can plug a mouse into a power supply - but nobody expects it will work). USB-C somewhat violates that, but even still it mostly is a case if you can get the connectors to fit it works.
- zettabomb 1y ago
  Didn't even think of that, yes of course XLR and for that matter, 1/4" TS/TRS connectors were originally for switching phones at AT&T, before automated switching. Incidentally, you can also blow up quite a bit of stuff with them, depending on whether they are at consumer "line level", pro audio "line level", or even speaker level. We're definitely too comfortable with "if it fits, it works" (or at least isn't harmful".
  - jameshart 1y ago
    There was a wild period in early transistor electronics where DC power adapters sometimes used 1/8" phone jacks - before the barrel-style DC plugs became common. Having 9V DC in a form that could be plugged into a microphone input always seemed like a pretty insane choice.
    - genewitch 1y ago
      i blew up my atari in the 1980s with one of those plugs.
    - namibj 1y ago
      I'd like to mention my USB-stick-shaped audio recorder/player who's headphone jack (only uses built-in mic in any case, though iirc the headphone button skips to the next file) functions as the computer and charging connector. The device was shipped with a cable (USB-A male) <> (TRRS 3.5mm aka 1/8") for this usage. It reports as mass storage.
      - geoffpado 1y ago
        Apple shipped a few iPods that were like this, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Shuffle#2nd_generation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Shuffle#2nd_generation
        spongeb00b 1y ago
        Apple even used the 1/4” jack for the Lisa keyboard https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/physical-object/2022/12/X2436.2002B.01.01.jpg https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/physica...
  - projektfu 1y ago
    Here I thought you meant they were also used in demolition or pyrotechnics.
    - 1y ago
- jameshart 1y ago
  DIN connectors also date from the 1950s, so do coax F connectors (the screw-coupled connectors for cable TV). RCA/phono jacks are from the 1930s - when record players and radios were first a thing. But headphone jacks - originally phone switchboard jacks - are way older, dating to the 1870s.
  - adolph 1y ago
    The 1878 one is fascinating: When the plug is inserted, the jack "breaks its normal connection." Like they didn't want to leave the audio output like a floating pin to reduce stray voltage? Scribner calls the switch "spring-jack" after "jack-knife" where the "jack" part of it comes from the name Jack and in the 1300s meant a mechanical device. So the "female" component of the connection was thereby given a "male" name. Charles E. Scribner filed a patent in 1878 to facilitate switchboard operation using his spring-jack switch. In it, a conductive lever pushed by a spring is normally connected to one contact. But when a cable with a conductive plug is inserted into a hole and makes contact with that lever, the lever pivots and breaks its normal connection. The receptacle was called a jack-knife because of its resemblance to a pocket clasp-knife. This is said to be the origin of calling the receptacle a jack. Scribner filed a patent in 1880 which removes the lever and resembles the modern connector and made improvements to switchboard design in subsequent patents filed in 1882. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_%28audio%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_%28audio%29 late 14c., jakke "a mechanical device," from the masc. name Jack. The proper name was used in Middle English for "any common fellow," and thereafter extended to various appliances which do the work of common servants (1570s). https://www.etymonline.com/word/Jack https://www.etymonline.com/word/Jack
    - em3rgent0rdr 1y ago
      I don't think it was about not wanting to leave the audio input floating. Rather the "normal connection" is that the telephone subscriber is connected directly to the switchboard operator's annunciator (a display panel) so that the subscriber can light up a bulb on the annunciator when that subscriber wishes to ask the operator to reroute that subscriber's connection to another subscriber (instead of to the switchboard operator). This is why the switch ought to act like a double-throw, not just a single-throw switch. I think something along those lines is the reason... > In a telephone-exchange system the wires of the several subscribers are run into a cen tral office, where, upon request, any wire may be connected with that of any other subscriber. > In Fig. 4 is shown the cut-out connected with subscriber's wire in and the relay and annunciator P and O, and also, with the operator's telephone J, by means of the plug A, which is provided with a metallic point, and conducting-cord d. The connections are formed as follows: The subscriber S, by throwing on his local battery, sends a current along the wire in through the relay P, which, closing, the annunciator number of S is indicated at O, and the current passes along the Wire H, and thence through the switch to the ground Wire G.
- Galanwe 1y ago
  Right, but the alternative of having 1 protocol per connector sounds awful as well, wouldn't you agree ?
jdietrich 1y ago
European TVs still use an antenna connector that was introduced in 1922. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling-Lee_connector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling-Lee_connector
- formerly_proven 1y ago
  Though that’s both older and better than RCA plugs. Somehow both RCA and NEMA managed to spread, the former world-wide, the latter only US + colonies, despite much better alternatives already existing and the drawbacks being obvious even 100 years ago.
userbinator 1y ago
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_screw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_screw is from 1880.
MisterTea 1y ago
MIL-DTL-5015 is from the 1930s and used in avionics as well as industrial electrics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-DTL-5015 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-DTL-5015 I have soldered a lot of these into cable assemblies for automated welding fixtures. They are also found on some servo motors and cables.
- HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
  And it's "Kleenex-ized" as the "Cannon connector" :-)
alanbernstein 1y ago
I hypothesize that the car cigarette lighter port is the only truly standard, widely-used connector remaining. Wall outlets, just for 120V in the US, have at least three variants. 3.5mm audio plugs have at least four variants.

paradox460 1y ago

Phone jacks. Invented in the late 19th century. Still in use today.

zettabomb 1y ago
I assume you're referring to the 1/4" jacks, not RJ series?
EvanAnderson 1y ago
I assume you're talking about these, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)

bluGill 1y ago

XLR used (mostly) in audio is also from the 1950s. The biggest problem with these standards is they are used for everything and so you cannot be sure that if the cable fits it will work. If a USB cable fits it will almost always work - but if it doesn't it will be obvious to your average idiot way (that is you can plug a mouse into a power supply - but nobody expects it will work). USB-C somewhat violates that, but even still it mostly is a case if you can get the connectors to fit it works.

zettabomb 1y ago
Didn't even think of that, yes of course XLR and for that matter, 1/4" TS/TRS connectors were originally for switching phones at AT&T, before automated switching. Incidentally, you can also blow up quite a bit of stuff with them, depending on whether they are at consumer "line level", pro audio "line level", or even speaker level. We're definitely too comfortable with "if it fits, it works" (or at least isn't harmful".
- jameshart 1y ago
  There was a wild period in early transistor electronics where DC power adapters sometimes used 1/8" phone jacks - before the barrel-style DC plugs became common. Having 9V DC in a form that could be plugged into a microphone input always seemed like a pretty insane choice.
  - genewitch 1y ago
    i blew up my atari in the 1980s with one of those plugs.
  - namibj 1y ago
    I'd like to mention my USB-stick-shaped audio recorder/player who's headphone jack (only uses built-in mic in any case, though iirc the headphone button skips to the next file) functions as the computer and charging connector. The device was shipped with a cable (USB-A male) <> (TRRS 3.5mm aka 1/8") for this usage. It reports as mass storage.
    - geoffpado 1y ago
      Apple shipped a few iPods that were like this, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Shuffle#2nd_generation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Shuffle#2nd_generation
      - spongeb00b 1y ago
        Apple even used the 1/4” jack for the Lisa keyboard https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/physical-object/2022/12/X2436.2002B.01.01.jpg https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/physica...
- projektfu 1y ago
  Here I thought you meant they were also used in demolition or pyrotechnics.
  - 1y ago
jameshart 1y ago
DIN connectors also date from the 1950s, so do coax F connectors (the screw-coupled connectors for cable TV). RCA/phono jacks are from the 1930s - when record players and radios were first a thing. But headphone jacks - originally phone switchboard jacks - are way older, dating to the 1870s.
- adolph 1y ago
  The 1878 one is fascinating: When the plug is inserted, the jack "breaks its normal connection." Like they didn't want to leave the audio output like a floating pin to reduce stray voltage? Scribner calls the switch "spring-jack" after "jack-knife" where the "jack" part of it comes from the name Jack and in the 1300s meant a mechanical device. So the "female" component of the connection was thereby given a "male" name. Charles E. Scribner filed a patent in 1878 to facilitate switchboard operation using his spring-jack switch. In it, a conductive lever pushed by a spring is normally connected to one contact. But when a cable with a conductive plug is inserted into a hole and makes contact with that lever, the lever pivots and breaks its normal connection. The receptacle was called a jack-knife because of its resemblance to a pocket clasp-knife. This is said to be the origin of calling the receptacle a jack. Scribner filed a patent in 1880 which removes the lever and resembles the modern connector and made improvements to switchboard design in subsequent patents filed in 1882. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_%28audio%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_%28audio%29 late 14c., jakke "a mechanical device," from the masc. name Jack. The proper name was used in Middle English for "any common fellow," and thereafter extended to various appliances which do the work of common servants (1570s). https://www.etymonline.com/word/Jack https://www.etymonline.com/word/Jack
  - em3rgent0rdr 1y ago
    I don't think it was about not wanting to leave the audio input floating. Rather the "normal connection" is that the telephone subscriber is connected directly to the switchboard operator's annunciator (a display panel) so that the subscriber can light up a bulb on the annunciator when that subscriber wishes to ask the operator to reroute that subscriber's connection to another subscriber (instead of to the switchboard operator). This is why the switch ought to act like a double-throw, not just a single-throw switch. I think something along those lines is the reason... > In a telephone-exchange system the wires of the several subscribers are run into a cen tral office, where, upon request, any wire may be connected with that of any other subscriber. > In Fig. 4 is shown the cut-out connected with subscriber's wire in and the relay and annunciator P and O, and also, with the operator's telephone J, by means of the plug A, which is provided with a metallic point, and conducting-cord d. The connections are formed as follows: The subscriber S, by throwing on his local battery, sends a current along the wire in through the relay P, which, closing, the annunciator number of S is indicated at O, and the current passes along the Wire H, and thence through the switch to the ground Wire G.
Galanwe 1y ago
Right, but the alternative of having 1 protocol per connector sounds awful as well, wouldn't you agree ?

jdietrich 1y ago

European TVs still use an antenna connector that was introduced in 1922. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling-Lee_connector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling-Lee_connector

formerly_proven 1y ago
Though that’s both older and better than RCA plugs. Somehow both RCA and NEMA managed to spread, the former world-wide, the latter only US + colonies, despite much better alternatives already existing and the drawbacks being obvious even 100 years ago.

userbinator 1y ago

The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_screw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_screw is from 1880.

MisterTea 1y ago

MIL-DTL-5015 is from the 1930s and used in avionics as well as industrial electrics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-DTL-5015 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-DTL-5015 I have soldered a lot of these into cable assemblies for automated welding fixtures. They are also found on some servo motors and cables.

HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
And it's "Kleenex-ized" as the "Cannon connector" :-)

alanbernstein 1y ago

I hypothesize that the car cigarette lighter port is the only truly standard, widely-used connector remaining. Wall outlets, just for 120V in the US, have at least three variants. 3.5mm audio plugs have at least four variants.