MDC cc owners - I need connector info

[John_H]

If you have a good magnifier and an MDC cruise control you might be able to help me out.

If I could find out who the manufacturer is of the odd little orange connectors on the board for the wiring connections I'd have a leg up.



Usually connector manufacturers are sure their name is on their plastic somewhere. Since the two mating halves are going to be from the same manufacturer, either one could reveal who makes them.

If I had an MDC unit, it would be easy for me to do. Since I don't, I'm out of luck.

Could you tell me who the manufacturer is? Thanks for any assistance!

[cubefx]

John, If nobody beat me to it I will look tomorrow. I believe that the LED is Bi-Color RED/GREEN (three legs) Yellow is when both colors are on.


CUBE

[John_H]

The red/green is pretty much a given but I don't know what currents they use to drive the LEDs and whether the currents are steady-state for all three colors (to include yellow). Figuring out common anode or common cathode should be straightforward but not without a little probing. I was honestly surprised they didn't use a 2-pin LED, greed biased one way, red biased the other, yellow from a rapid switch between the two polarities.

It's the connector manufacturer I'd really like to know. I haven't seen buggers like those on any electronics I've taken apart and haven't come across them in the top 3 connector manufacturer catalogs.

Any help is appreciated!

[Woody14619]

Originally Posted by John_H

Figuring out common anode or common cathode should be straightforward but not without a little probing. I was honestly surprised they didn't use a 2-pin LED, greed biased one way, red biased the other, yellow from a rapid switch between the two polarities.

I'm pretty sure it's a shared cathode/ground wire, but will check this weekend when I'm in there. As I recall the LED wires were red/black/green, which would imply to me a common ground, assuming they made the wires actually match the function.

I'm not too surprised by the use of a 3-line vs 2-line. Back in the day when they first came out there were known as 2-color LEDs, since only one color could be "on" at a time. Then a wise acre figured out if you put AC across it, it blended both into "yellow", and suddenly it was tri-color.

Now most manufactures make a 3-line version for the exact same price as the 2-line version. Since it's easier in a pure DC system to just enable one, the other, or both, most use the 3-line version now. Why bother with an RC circut or a 555 to oscilate an LED when you can just logically drive 3 all colors with 2 bits right off the PIC?

I'll look for the manufacture on the plastic when I'm in there this weekend if cube doesn't beat me to it.

[John_H]

Bueller.... Bueller....

[John_H]

How about this weekend? Anyone game on finding the manufacturer printed on one of those funny orange connectors?

[Ozzie]

John, i get back to Miami on Wednesday. If you don't have the answer, i'll open up the box and take a look for you. i can also probe voltage etcc if ou need it.

Ozzie

[John_H]

You're a good man, Ozzie. Since there's been silence for 10 days, yours might be the best help available. Got a good magnifier? maybe a small flashlight? Reading the markings on shiny plastic can be challenging.

I figure one wire is GND or +V and the other 2 are for the LEDs. If the wires are red/grn/blk, it would be nice to see blk=gnd, grn=+2.5V when the LED is green or yellow, red=+1.7V when red or yellow. If there's another +V on the 8-pin connector, I'd love to know if it's +5, +12, or what along with what pin number it is relative to the red/grn/blk wires.

If I had knew the connectors I could put together a jig to to plug inline tomeasure current (2-20mA range) to find out how much those LEDs are fed. That would be all the info I'd need (I'm assuming the LEDs are DC driven).

[cubefx]

John,
Sorry that I could not check it out sooner (I have been slammed with work lately).
I do not think that I will be able to help you much. I opened CC and checked connector with the magnifying glass. It is looks like generic connector with no any markings whats so ever, not even contact posts numbers. Here is few photos for you.

Check the manufacturer website.

BTW what the heck is "Our Interface delivers a CAN-Bus signal for a navigation system !! " part?



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I wish I could be more help to you.




CUBE

[John_H]

As much looking through the tycoelectronics site I did, I never came across this catalog.

It looks like these are the those! The image detail gave me enough of a hint to broaden/narrow my search.



Cubefx - thanks so much for the photographic detail.

-- Also, I can see now the wires aren't red/grn/blk --