Welcome Davide Andrea, author or The Electronic Connector Book! And many thanks to Blues for sponsoring this episode of The Amp Hour! Get 10% off your next order in their online store for a development kit by using the code AMPHOUR.
Davide is an engineer working on Battery Management Systems at Elithion
He got into writing and editing books via a postcard sent to him after he gave a talk
For many years he was an editor at Artech house
He works on Lithium BMS systems for large setups
How do young engineers learn about connectors, but for tribal knowledge within larger companies?
Digikey catalog is a good search for connectors overall
Industrial cinch by Harting
Should you design a custom connector (“no”)
Davide also built and maintains an online tool for finding connectors called Identiconn
Fretting is when vibration causes a connector to fail
Davide had to go to Bell Labs docs to look up some specs
Chris remarked that Identiconn is a McMaster (Carr) style browsing experience
Vendors divide based on how the fields are set up, because that is actually logical for them selling parts. It’s harder for finding/discovering components though.
On distributor sites, the connectors are grouped by how they were bought
Chris asked Davide about things that have gone wrong in his career with connectors
FFC doesn’t connect back into the socket after the tab is ripped away
ribbon cable vs ffc, CIC vs FPC
IDC – insulation displacement connector
Davide has filled in with generated terms where there are no defined language for a family/type of connector, such as with “bump idc” connectors
“dual beam?
Chris and Davide did a joint search for the high density CM4 connector that mounts the Raspberry Pi module to another board
Gender of connectors (note: there is a great discussion about the historical nature of using gender for connectors in the book)
Pin vs plastic gender
Shrouded vs enshrouded
gaziatea (sic) – poem from the 1800
USB type A connector
Self mating
APC7 – self mting connector
Anderson connectors
TNC BNC search
PFFE for the dielectric on a BNC/TNC
Magnetic connectors with pogo pins
Example connector from Hyte
Crimps were designed in the 50s
The source of having so many power connectors is … imperialism? tahiti / fiji / nz all have different connectors
Why antennas are male/female is…money? And regulatory silliness via the FCC
Davide has also written about and is working on lithium ion batteries
A sodium ion battery book (self published, unlike the LiIon books) should be out next year
The Connector Book is self published. Your purchase directly supports Davide’s work…and you get the web tools for free!
“peak lithium”
What is required when refining sodium for batteries?
The voltage range and charging needs are different for Sodium Ion. For instance, the range goes from 4V to 2V
Find Davide on his various websites, on LinkedIn, on StackExchange, and on reddit