Bob's Blog #14: Connector Breakout Boards

For repeater builders who don’t enjoy soldering wires to the small solder cups on D-subminiature cable connectors, there’s a simple solution: breakout boards, also known as terminal boards.

 A breakout board lets you connect wires to a D-sub via convenient screw terminals. Boards are available with male or female DE-9, DE-15, DA-15, and DB-25 connectors, and some come with plastic enclosures.

S-COM doesn’t manufacture breakout boards, but you can easily find them online by searching for “d-sub breakout board”.

If you are interfacing to a 5K, 6K, 7K, or 7330, be sure the breakout board’s D-sub connector has captive screws instead of nuts (jack screws). And if you are interfacing to the 7330’s closely-spaced DE-9 port connectors, use “slim” breakout boards in which the board width matches the connector width. Here’s an example: http://www.winford.com/products/brksd9.php

DE9 Breakout Board

Here’s a DB-25 version: http://www.winford.com/products/brksd25.php

Breakout boards with enclosures can be found here:

http://www.winford.com/products/cat_brke.php

More examples…

DE-9M with enclosure from Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.com/Connector-Adapter-Terminal-Signal-Module/dp/B071DS5GTW

DB-25 male with enclosure on Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.com/Twinkle-Bay-Connector-Terminal-Solder-free/dp/B07437RWV7

DE-15HD (3-row, 15-pin) male with enclosure, useful for the DR-1X/DR-2X:

https://www.amazon.com/D-SUB-Female-Terminal-Breakout-Connectors/dp/B014L9XAGG

DB25 extension cable, in case you need it:

http://www.winford.com/products/ext25.php

But… Be aware that “computer cables” have a single shield around all 25 conductors. Don’t use them for audio as you could encounter crosstalk problems.

By the way, you can mount the breakout board on the rear rail of the rack in which the controller is mounted. That way, you don’t have to dig way back in the rack to wire up something you want to monitor or control.

 

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