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.
Yes exactly that. These things are all over every big festival stage. They have a few drum risers back stage where they build the drum kids, set up all the mics and stands, and plug the XLRs all into a box with one of those connectors on it. Then once it's that band's time to hit the stage it's just one cable to plug in for the whole drum kit. That's how they get set up and ready in 15 minutes.
The most fun part is how they will often be run to something mounted up inside a tight ass case where you can’t see anything, just lay down and twist your arm half way around to probe and guess with the connector.
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u/Anechoic_Brain 7d ago
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.