Re: [Open Manufacturing] Connectors and Batteries. Designing them to be society wide.

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Keith Mc

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May 19, 2011, 8:02:47 PM5/19/11
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My suggestion for a society wide connector is to create an Open Source connector,
in a geometry analogous to the Anderson Power Products "Hermaphroditic Connector"
Multipole version of their Power Pole system:
... http://www.andersonpower.com/products/multipole-connectors.html

The Multipole system is a rectangular two pin side by side connector, with
identical flat pins in a housing. All copies mate to each other.
IOW, there is only ONE connector to the system, per current capacity.
Different current capacities are either built to different scales, or have a slot
and pin located in a different position, to prevent mating.
The housings are color coded by current capacity, for easy ID.

Because they force you to flip one to plug over to plug it into another copy
of itself, you are ALWAYS guaranteed that the same side (left or right)
matches its mate. Therefore, if for example you declare Left=Red=Positive
and Right=Black=Negative, it always works... (Imagine two stacked on top of
each other, facing forward, with the same "color" on top of each other.
Now flip the top one over "forward", as if you did an End-over on a bicycle.
It now can plug into the bottom one, with the colors matching...)

The advantage of this type of Hermaphroditic System is that you only
have to create ONE connector. Now, they all mate to each other.
To define multiple uses (eg AC vs DC, different voltages or currents, etc.)
and keep dissimilar connectors from mating, simply change their scale,
or add a pin and slot in the opening, to prevent mating.

The US Military also has an round version of a hermaphroditic connector, made by AMP.
The two tined forked pins fit in an X-slot in an array, in each connector. Two externally
threaded copies of the same connector simply use a barrel coupler to bind them.
The A vs B choice of which way to put the pin in the X hhole in the housing
determines whether or not two connectors will mate together.

To visualize how these pins couple: Take your index and center finger of each hand
and pretend they're the two tined pin. Now face them at each other, with one held
horizontally, and one held vertically. Now slide them together over each other
until the common point of each wrist between the roots of the two fingers touch each other.

Bottom line: IF we define our OWN Open Source version as a hermaphroditic power connector,
it has a lot of advantages.
1) It would greatly simplify manufacturing as you only need ONE connector design per pair.
2) It increases quantity made, dropping the price radically.

IMO, all you really need to do is
a) First, MAKE A SPEC - what voltage and current does each member of the "family" need to be?
b) Refine and prototype a generic hermaphroditic design, until it meets those specs in all versions.
c) Prove it is easily fabricated, with minimal tooling.
d) Finally, publish that design as an OPEN Source design.

IF acceptable, people will take the design, and create tooling to make it, en masse.

- Keith Mc.

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