Identifying pins part 1

[yetiface09]

Here's a little tutorial or more of a show and tell about various computer pins. These pictures may help some folks in identifying some pins. If any of you guys have some insight as to the quality or thickness of plating, please by all means advise us. I'm sure there are more folks than just myself that would like to know some ballpark figures on plating.

34 and 40 pin IDE connectors. Used to connect the motherboard to various drives. It's usually from a very thin flat gray cable.


They have pins like this with what appears to be very thin plating.


SAS connector (Serial Attached SCSI (pronounced Scuzzy)) don't worry about what it means. These have a fair amount of gold plated pins.


SAS connectors have pins like this.


Alternate views of SAS connectors


To be continued...

 

[yetiface09]

More pins!

This is a RAID card connector. They may be used for more than RAID cards but not very often. They mainly come from servers, not desktops or laptops. They can be easily taken apart with a small philips head screwdriver, or ripped apart violently with a pair of pliers. I prefer the more methodical approach. The fewer flying pieces of gold in the garage, the better!


Front view of connector


When it is pretty much fully disassembled, you can see that there are tons of plated pins with a bit of plating on the tips. This, logically, would be better quality plating since it is from a server. But what do I know? I could be wrong there.

 

[pgms4me]

Thanks for the post and great pictures. Those computer drive ribbon cable connectors that you show, come in many colors. the colors dont seem to matter as far as pin quality goes on the newer ones,but on servers and pc cables from the 90's there can be a huge difference. Back then,almost all the blue ones and black ones had fully plated pins right thru to where the ribbon cable connects-you can tell right away by removing the plastic strip at the rear of the connector. You will see the gold ends sticking up past where they connect to the ribbon cable.

 

[yetiface09]

And yet more pins!

This is a SATA power connector. used to supply power to various devices in more modern computers.


Here's the best way to easily and quickly get what you're after.


And here pins they provide.


Here's a good one. A Centronics cable. They don't use these much nowadays but they have way more than your usual connector.


Parallel pins. Pretty decent amount on these. Not sure of the actual yields. Anyone?


Ok ok. My quarter is being a Diva and needs a break from all the photography. It must be tough working that hard. LOL! (sorry I'm full of lame jokes) I'll post more at some point.

 

[yetiface09]

Thanks for the post and great pictures. Those computer drive ribbon cable connectors that you show, come in many colors. the colors dont seem to matter as far as pin quality goes on the newer ones,but on servers and pc cables from the 90's there can be a huge difference. Back then,almost all the blue ones and black ones had fully plated pins right thru to where the ribbon cable connects-you can tell right away by removing the plastic strip at the rear of the connector. You will see the gold ends sticking up past where they connect to the ribbon cable.

That's good to know! Thanks man! I work in the IT industry as a consultant so I come across lots of more modern equipment. I would love to find some stash of old school computers or something from the 80's or 90's. It's funny to see how manufacturers used to put a lot of quality in their products back then. And that doesn't just apply to electronics either! Thanks for the post!

 

[chlaurite]

Great guide, I look forward to more of it!

Just for clarification, though, that "hooked" one-sided-plating style of pin shown in your "RAID card connector" tends to have very little gold on them, you can almost wipe it off if with your finger (I don't mean the ones where the plating covers most of the pin, just the ones where it barely extends past the "hook", sometimes not even to the tip of the pin, and visibly fades out over a few mm).

Oh, and that parallel printer connector end you show goes by the term "Centronics" connector (as opposed to the DB25 end - And I've never seen a Centronics-to-Centronics cable).

 

[yetiface09]

Great guide, I look forward to more of it!

Just for clarification, though, that "hooked" one-sided-plating style of pin shown in your "RAID card connector" tends to have very little gold on them, you can almost wipe it off if with your finger (I don't mean the ones where the plating covers most of the pin, just the ones where it barely extends past the "hook", sometimes not even to the tip of the pin, and visibly fades out over a few mm).

Yeah those are typically just a boat load of base metal to dissolve and probably are better suited for a sulphuric cell. Although I have yet to build and try one of those. I will as soon as funds allow.

Oh, and that parallel printer connector end you show goes by the term "Centronics" connector (as opposed to the DB25 end - And I've never seen a Centronics-to-Centronics cable).

Yeah my mistake. I glazed over this one. The parallel connectors have two long rows of holes like this.

 

[yetiface09]

Can anyone tell me if VGA connectors actually have gold plated pins? I have a ton of them and they are a major pain to harvest. Just wanted to know if I'm spinning my wheels here.

 

[pgms4me]

vga and the smaller 9 pin connectors all have gold plated pins,but so much work for so little return. I sell them as is in 10-40 # lots with other time consuming connectors.As for myself, i draw the line at about 25pins on the modern connectors.

 

[Geo]

not so hard when you have done it for a few years. i hate doing connectors but my wife can run through a bucket full in an afternoon.

 

[chlaurite]

VGA and DVI connectors both have gold plated pins (sometimes really good quality, too, since they carry high-speed signals). They tend to have a large blob of some sort of waxy epoxy inside the body of the connector, wrapped in foil and usually covering a rectangular steel(?) casing. For the ones that have the internal steel body, you can use a utility knife to neatly peel away one side of the epoxy (the top or bottom work well) right along the edge of the steel, and then the whole rest of it just falls apart neatly.

Or, you can just pop the D-shell metal shroud off with a screwdriver and neatly shear the pins off - You'll give up a small bit of gold that way, but on almost all of them I've done, the gold doesn't usually extend much into the body.

 

[yar]

vga and the smaller 9 pin connectors all have gold plated pins,but so much work for so little return. I sell them as is in 10-40 # lots with other time consuming connectors.As for myself, i draw the line at about 25pins on the modern connectors.

Try putting the VGA connectors in a pot of hot water for a few minutes. The heavy plastic will soften up and you can then cut thru it much easier with a utility knife.

 

[vajra]

Here's a little tutorial or more of a show and tell about various computer pins. These pictures may help some folks in identifying some pins. If any of you guys have some insight as to the quality or thickness of plating, please by all means advise us. I'm sure there are more folks than just myself that would like to know some ballpark figures on plating.

Thanks man!!
I Very appreciate this !!!!

 

[Phil.elmer]

It is very informative men,,
thanks a lot

 

[stevenh]

Hi all,

I have 4 or 5 pounds of these DB25 and VGA15 gender changers (couplers)

There are about 150-200 pieces. Is there enough plating to bother recycling? I have the feeling that pulling these things apart will be more work than gold value.

Cheers

 

[chlaurite]

Is there enough plating to bother recycling? I have the feeling that pulling these things apart will be more work than gold value.

It probably will count as more effort than values recoverable - But yes, VGA pins tend to have a pretty decent plating. I haven't done a lot of DB25s, but as older hardware, they have a better chance of having a good thick layer of gold than many newer connectors.

I'd say take one of each apart thoroughly, and see how far the gold goes. If the whole pin, definitely worth it; if just the tips, not quite as good but you could get away with just removing the shroud (the easy part) and shearing the pins off flush with the connector.

 

[stevenh]

Is there enough plating to bother recycling? I have the feeling that pulling these things apart will be more work than gold value.

It probably will count as more effort than values recoverable - But yes, VGA pins tend to have a pretty decent plating. I haven't done a lot of DB25s, but as older hardware, they have a better chance of having a good thick layer of gold than many newer connectors.

I'd say take one of each apart thoroughly, and see how far the gold goes. If the whole pin, definitely worth it; if just the tips, not quite as good but you could get away with just removing the shroud (the easy part) and shearing the pins off flush with the connector.

Thank you chlaurite,
I guess it wouldn't hurt to crack a couple of them to see what's going on inside. Checking with a loupe I can see the gold goes all the way into the insulators. I know these things are from the mid-90s, so maybe the plating will be thick. Hope for the best, expect the worst. :mrgreen:

Cheers

 

[stevenh]

Is there enough plating to bother recycling? I have the feeling that pulling these things apart will be more work than gold value.

It probably will count as more effort than values recoverable - But yes, VGA pins tend to have a pretty decent plating. I haven't done a lot of DB25s, but as older hardware, they have a better chance of having a good thick layer of gold than many newer connectors.

I'd say take one of each apart thoroughly, and see how far the gold goes. If the whole pin, definitely worth it; if just the tips, not quite as good but you could get away with just removing the shroud (the easy part) and shearing the pins off flush with the connector.

So I went ahead a cracked a few of them open, and was surprised to see they are all hook pins and plated through.

I figured there's about 4 ounces of these pins in the connector pile I have. Still not sure it'd be worth the effort.

 

[techchimp]

A little background on the Centronics connector(s)....
The printer connector has 36 pins. The SCSI-1 connector has 50 pins, but shares the same form factor as the 36 pin connector (just wider to accommodate the extra pins). I remember them being rather expensive as cables go. They started to phase out in the mid-90's, by 2000 SCSI was mostly SCSI-2 connectors and SCSI-3. There is also a thing called a terminator that went on the end of an external SCSI chain. A terminator looks like the connector without any cable.

 

[Tipton444]

Are the ribbon cable pins worth taking apart? Especially if it's only the tips? This thread was helpful, thanks, I'm definitely trying to learn my pins more.