NMEA-0183 Connector: Molex DITTO Genderless Connectors

Electrical and electronic topics for small boats
jimh
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NMEA-0183 Connector: Molex DITTO Genderless Connectors

Postby jimh » Tue Aug 29, 2023 10:21 am

The Molex connector line is extremely broad, and includes a series of genderless connectors called the DITTO line. These connectors are able to mate with themselves, so there is no need to specify a male or female gender. They could be useful for making interconnections between NMEA-0183 devices, using the five-pole universal arrangement I have described earlier in an article at

Universal NMEA-0183 Interface
https://continuouswave.com/whaler/refer ... A0183.html

The appropriate DITTO connector will be the Molex 150201-0015. The supplier MOUSER has these in stock at a cost of only $0.42 for each connector body:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mo ... 6cXw%3D%3D

The connectors for use in the connector body are Molex 150200-0011. Five terminals will be needed for each connector. The terminals cost $0.232 in lots of of ten, or $0.17 in lots of 100. These terminals are for wire size 22-AWG to 20-AWG.

The specified crimp tool for manual assembly is very expensive, almost $500:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mo ... F3Qg%3D%3D

I suspect that a less expensive hand crimp tool could be used, if the assembly and crimping is carefully done. I have a very old MOLEX crimp tool that I have used thousands of time to crimp small AWG-20 or AWG-22 contacts. I think it may work.

I plan to order some of these components and test them for easy assembly without the $500 crimp tool. I will report the results in an update.