In article . com,
Andy Evans wrote:
http://www.rapidonline.com/productin...moduleno=72443

How about these? Rated 415v

Ideal. You'll need a matching hard hat, though.

--
*If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Iain Churches wrote:
How about these? Rated 415v


:-.))))

Three phase mains connectors?

They're just BS4343 or 'Commando' types available for 110, 240 and 415 use
- designated by colour. Widely used on building sites and filming.
Only the builders get paid more to unplug them. ;_)

--
*Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

http://www.rapidonline.com/productin...s+%26+Connecto...
How about these? Rated 415v


Ideal. You'll need a matching hard hat, though.

Well, it's a brute force solution. Meets all the voltage and specs by
the look of it. And not too expensive even. Total overkill, but that's
the way European regs are going, so I suppose it's par for the course.

Andy Evans wrote:
http://www.rapidonline.com/productin...s+%26+Connecto...
How about these? Rated 415v


Ideal. You'll need a matching hard hat, though.

Well, it's a brute force solution. Meets all the voltage and specs by
the look of it. And not too expensive even. Total overkill, but that's
the way European regs are going, so I suppose it's par for the course.

Oops - just thought................. somebody might inadvertently
connect a caravan to it.

Andy Evans wrote:

I'm trying to decide on that age old question of what connection to
make from seperate PSU chassis to main valve amplifier chassis. I'm
thinking in terms of a shared PSU and two monobloks, so connectors
would only have to take the power to one amp. Criteria I decided were
essential we
a) low cost (so no Amphenol connectors)
b) potentially large number of pins (at least 15)
c) locking (so can't get pulled out by accident)
d) at least one connector must safely take 360Vdc (equals 250v AC
rating). Possibly the option of two.
e) common part, not likely to become obsolete

first I agonised over one cable or two, and decided one cable would
require too high density, be hard to wire, would be expensive, and
would be an uncommon part. Amphenol out the window.

next I did the calculations for number of connectors. Since I'm
planning for three stages of DHTs and my system is balanced, this is
what I found:
* 12 connections for the filaments of 6DHTs.
* earth
* -15vDC for CCS
* one B+ or maybe two.

that's a minimum of 15 connections. So my eye fell on D connectors.
Relatively easy to wire up and available in 15 way which is nicely
compact. Some are rated at 500v even, so a single 15 way D connector is
not impossible.
but while I was happy with the filaments and the -15v supply on D
connectors, I would really like better contacts for B+ and earth. My
two choices for an added connector we
a) speakon plugs in 2,4,8 way
b) XLRs
Speakons are cheap in four way but expensive in 8 way, so 4 way remains
a possibility. I'm not quite eliminating them but I'm a bit put off by
the following:
1) they're bigger and stick out more than XLRs
2) some idiot might plug a speaker into the PSU box

So XLRs. they offer the possibility of using 4,5,6 or 7 way. Now, I
spoke to Neutrik about the voltage rating for these, and it's a bit
more complex than you think. Some of their paperwork specifies 50v for
the whole range, some specify 150v, some specify different voltages for
different connectors. The sales guy in the UK quoted me 250vAC for 3-6
way and 125VAC for the 7 way. Not much agreement here, and the
unbranded Chinese ones have no voltage rating. In terms of availability
the 5 ways are common, 7 quite rare and gets eliminated because won't
handle the voltage. Four and six way are more unusual, and six way is
much more expensive. Four way can be had in cheap unbranded. So I'm
thinking 4 way right now, with the 15 way D connector, because this
gives the biggest pins and widest spacing so with unbranded the chances
are they're OK for 250vDC, or at least more likely to be than the 5
way.

I hope you've followed all this. So any suggestions? Anything I've left
out like BNC for just the B+ (high voltage)? Never used BNC but it's
locking at least. Is my above reasoning reasonable? Bright ideas?
Andy

It's very wrong.

You need to meet EN60065.

I'd suggest a big Harting connectort for the job. The HAN-HVE is good for
830V.
http://www.harting.com/en/en/en/sol/.../index.en.html

Graham

The R15 series comprises circular connectors with a screw locking
system.
The contact inserts with 8 cavities (7 + Ground) can be fitted with
crimp contacts for wire gauges from 0.14mm² to 2.5mm². The connectors
are rated at 10 A and 250 V (600 V according to UL and CSA). Plastic or
metal housings are available for this series.

Hi there - had a look at Harting and saw this, but what does this mean
600 V according to UL and CSA - is this just in the USA or something?

..

In article , Iain Churches
wrote:

"Andy Evans" wrote in message
oups.com...
d) at least one connector must safely take 360Vdc (equals 250v AC
rating).

Morning Andy. That's odd. Most connectors and relays have a much
*lower* rating at DC than AC.

I was just doing a standard calculation as for capacitors - usually
about 1.4 to 1. Why is it different with connectors?

Odd isn't it. perpelexing too is that the same connector has different
ratings for different uses (military, broadcast or domestic)

The complications are due to variations in the anticipated range of
conditions of use, and in what effects/factors are regarded as setting the
limits.

e.g. For some items the main concern is a flashover or breakdown of the
insulation. The insulation may survive a 'brief' high voltage, but break
down after a given time if the voltage is maintained. Thus you may find
that an ac signal can have a higher peak level before breakdown than a
maintained dc.

Whereas for LF on some other items it may simply be that you need the
*peak* level of the waveform to be limited to the same level as the dc
maximum. Hence a factor of root 2 for sinusoids.

Some capacitors may suffer from internal dielectric loss dissipation
problems or plate conduction losses, so the max permitted ac might be
somewhat lower than the max dc. etc. Reason being to avoid overheating the
device. The expected environmental temperature will matter here as well.

Some connectors/cables may be rated for working under a pile of mud whilst
squaddies are jumping up and down on top of them. Others may not be
expected to cope with this. :-)


You have to be very wary. If your neighbour's world champion, best of
breed Rottweiler bites through your DC cable, it could cost you a pile
of the elusive spondoolicks.

Dunno if there us a mil spec for that yet... :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

Since I've been looking at goodness knows how many connectors over the
last week, I have started to notice different ratings for AC and DC.
With capacitors one actual factory - in this instance LCR - informed me
that the ratio is about 1.4 to I so 250v becomes about 350vDC.
Presumably they've tested their products. But connectors seem to be a
different story - less than 1.4. I've seen things like 200vAC, 250DC.

It occurs to me that many of the connectors seem to quote 250vAC
because that's mains voltage. Must be some standardised coding. I
suspect many are capable of much more - e.g. Speakons - but just don't
bother to quote a higher voltage which they don't expect their product
to be used at.

Amphenol does seem to quote a voltage which is more in keeping with the
product, and I guess that "power" rather than mains connectors need to
be more specific, since all kinds of industrial and military voltages
may be required.

I did also come across some cheap and very useful connectors in the D
range - quoted for 750vDC. these have bugger pins than usual, and can
be bought either big pins only (three, eight) or mixtures of big and
regular pins. Made by Harting and can be found in the Farnell
catalogue. This looks particularly useful - cheap too.
http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSear...sp?SKU=1207587

In article .com,
Andy Evans wrote:
Since I've been looking at goodness knows how many connectors over the
last week, I have started to notice different ratings for AC and DC.
With capacitors one actual factory - in this instance LCR - informed me
that the ratio is about 1.4 to I so 250v becomes about 350vDC.
Presumably they've tested their products. But connectors seem to be a
different story - less than 1.4. I've seen things like 200vAC, 250DC.

And many connectors have the same ratings for both. I'd guess it purely
depends on the actual testing and intended application.

If you look again at those BS 4343 Commando connectors, they're 'rated' at
110, 240 and 415v AC, but are similar in design and made from the same
materials. Indeed, the 415v three phase type has the pins rather closer
together than the 110v ones.

So most connectors tend to be specified to meet the safety requirements of
a particular application (other than extra low voltage) rather than their
physical peak voltage and current handling capabilities.

A good example is the Jones plug as used for pretty well your app on a
Quad II valve amp. It was obviously a satisfactory connector from the
electrical point of view since they don't fail - but the spec these days
wouldn't 'allow' them.

--
*Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Andy Evans wrote:

The R15 series comprises circular connectors with a screw locking
system.
The contact inserts with 8 cavities (7 + Ground) can be fitted with
crimp contacts for wire gauges from 0.14mm² to 2.5mm². The connectors
are rated at 10 A and 250 V (600 V according to UL and CSA). Plastic or
metal housings are available for this series.

Hi there - had a look at Harting and saw this, but what does this mean
600 V according to UL and CSA - is this just in the USA or something?

UL is only valid for the USA and CSA in Canada.

There's more to it than this too. The contacts really should to be 'finger
proof' acc to IEC 60065 for domestic use.

Graham