What is a good site to order D-sub connectors? They have them in Radioshack but the price is simply not right…
I’ve recently been looking for the exact same, and honestly man, I’m sad to say I don’t know if it gets much better than that. I don’t like the price much either but you have to admit it’s not brutal for a specific piece of precision-manufactured thingamastuff.
There’s a level of low-market where the supply and demand system breaks down and things cost more than they should to get just because hardly anybody wants them (anymore). It’s the price we pay for having niche interests.
We should be glad this shit isn’t strictly for antique collectors!! 
http://neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179047
Prolly OP’ers thread anyways, but thought I’d post it up too. Yeah, DB connectors be spendy. Proper mounting hardware for them is spendy, IDC ribbon cable ones instead of solder cup ones are damn spendy.
But, compare it to just about any other sort of panel mount-able connector with a similar pin count and it looks very cheap.
Fry’s has db9’s, 15s, 25s, and I believe 48’s? all VERY CHEAP. They have JUST the pins, the pins and the enclosure, etc, in a wide variety for a good price. I believe I got DB 15s for like 48 cents there.
Just don’t expect anyone working there to know shit about fuck and you’ll be fine.
I got all my DB connectors from old computers. You remember Pentium / 486/386 era computers had the ribbon cables with the connectors for serial / parallel plugged into the motherboard? Those work great. There was a whole box of 'em at work, full of DB25, DB15, DB9 connectors.
Know any place where I can buy those for a halfway decent price? I’m not having any luck finding any online. I’d LOVE to get a bunch of the female DB-15 with ribbon cable pieces; they plug right into a UPCB.
Toodles,
Would it be tough to make your own?
http://www.catskillsupply.com/dsubshellsdb25.html
Not sure how many you would need, but they sell the Female plug, and ribbon cable that pretty much just crimps/snaps on.
Actually I am ordering from that! Thing is it took them like a month to figure out what to ship out and who they are shipping to…
My connectors should arrive today so I’ll update you guys on its quality/etc soon
Making my own from the IDC DB-15’s and ribbon cable is easy, you’re absolutely right, but they don’t work as well because they’re so hard to mount. The IDC ones like that require a whole EXACTLY the height of the metal plate because the plastic where the IDC part is goes that entire height, and it doesn’t mount flush because there is like 2mm of plastic on the wings. WIth a normal solder cub DB connector, you can make a fairly rough cut hole because the flat metal wings on the ends and the top and bottom will cover over the hole, all while still being flush.
The pre-assembled ribbon DB cables that came/come with motherboards didn’t use an IDC to connect the ribbon to the DB connector; the ribbon was split, stripped, and soldered into cheaper solder cup connectors. I can do that, but it’s kind of annoying work. If I could find a parts store that had those, I’d buy them quicklike. They usually also had a cheap plastic hoodish thing around the DB with the ribbon coming out, so the soldering wasn’t exposed; that’s easy to cut off though without harming the ribbon cable or soldering.
My discription sucks. I should post pictures.
I understand what you are saying, and that makes sense :).
My order from catskill arrived and they work. I ordered from them first week of Feb though, took a month to receive it… Said they couldnt ship out because my name does not match. Also their email have trouble reaching my address, dunno if its the case for others. But surely their prices are great, and once they figure out who I am they ship out fast. Maybe I’m just unlucky
Female DB15? I’ll look and see if I have any more of 'em. How many would you be interested in? 5? 10? 20?
EDIT: I checked the box o’ goodies. I have:
52 DB15 female connectors (this style: http://www.intolan.com/MIDI_Gameport_Back_plate_Adapter_p/misc-bkplt-game.htm )
60+ male DB25
5ish female DB25
60+ male DB9
You mean these:
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2213/s2020081xb7.jpg
What I don’t like is that the hoods are so fragile. If you tighten the screw locks too much the plastic will break. Definitely not heavy duty stuff.
D-sub IDC connectors without plastic on the wings seem to exist:
Those little black hoods are fragile, but that’s fine by me. The ribbon cable and everything will be inside a stick. I’m just hoping to find a cheap way to get them because they save me buying 16 pin IDC connectors, ribbon cable, solder cup DB-15s, and having to strip the ribbon cable and solder it myself. I appreciate the link on those 3M D-subs, but Digikey has them at a minimum of about $5 each just for that part.
Aleanil, I would be interesting in buying some, but I can’t at the moment. As soon as I can, I’ll PM you.
I’m not that familiar with D-Sub IDC connectors but isn’t the plastic on the wings only found on female connectors?
I highly recommend www.partsexpress.com
Here is their computer connector category:
http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?webpage_id=3&SO=2&CATID=21&ObjectGroup_ID=188
D-SUB stuff for 40-50 cents. Shipping is usually agreeable.
been dealing with them for years.