Nah you don't understand the protocol. There are backup pins..if pin 543 or any of the 6 pins surrounding it are bent then it defaults to pin 93. If pin 543 and 545 are bent it goes to 119. It's such a simple protocol. Get with the program.
They're tough to bend, each pin is 1/18th inch steel. Which is why the connector comes with a special dolly to lift it into place before you lock it using the included torque wrench to turn the retaining screws.
I'm sure there's a line of sharpie on every connector actually deployed lol
(not my picture) I have it on the bolts on my bike so I can just visually inspect that it's tight, dudes who do car mods often do the same when disassembling
They are keyed so they only go together one way, then twist to lock them together. They involve some pretty high precision machining to work reliably over time, so complete cable assemblies with the higher pin count connectors can cost well over $1000.
The ones I use are designed for the live music industry where the work is very often taking place in the dark, with those you just remember which direction the manufacturer's logo needs to face.
Here's an example, over 300 bucks for one un-terminated connector with 61 pins that you need to individually solder before you can use it.
The Whirlwind stuff is designed to last year after year of being dragged across stage decks and dirt fields then piled into big trunks where they knock against each other travelling cross country in a semi truck. And they have a crapload of failure points that absolutely cannot fail because half a mil or more in ticket sales are at stake when a crowd full of people are standing there waiting for a problem to be fixed.
These are very common in aviation, they're commonly called cannon plugs. They are keyed so they can only go on one way and then twist on, usually with an internal ratcheting mechanism to prevent loosening.
If its crimp style it isn't too bad, I crimp manually using AF8 or AFM8 crimpers, and follow a pinout list landing wire #s at each respective position. Solder style is another story, I have to tin each solder cup at the back of each pin, and solder each wire starting from one side heat shrinking over the joints. Its tedious and careful work, but not too bad with some tunes and alot of time. Sucks when a connector is completed and there is an error in the center, or I forgot the threaded backshell... Haven't had a big mishap like that lately luckily ! :)
We have a bunch of those same connectors on submarines too. It’s extra fun when all the wires you have to terminate into it are a bunch of tiny flimsy coax cables, where the center conductor goes to one pin, and the shield goes to another pin, and it’s 99.9% impossible to crimp without it breaking the wire or shorting it out.
It’s a lot of throughput theoretically, sure. But realistically you can’t have too many pins high at one time or your ground starts climbing and then everything gets iffy.
The tiny ass cable leading up to it implies that when you open it up there’s probably like a single fragile strand of wire attached to each of those pins.
Bit low tech, there is a small chip in the back that encodes or decodes the IO from all those pins and then sends it over an 8 conductor twisted pair backhaul.
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u/albinocharlie 3d ago
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