Mini dins

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hi there, I plan on using a mini din cord that has male on one end, female on the other end, but cutting the cord in half in order to put one half into one box and the other into the other, allowing me to connect the boxes.

My question is, does it matter which box has the male or female? One box has the arduino board, the other has leds. Can I have the female din on the arduino side, or will it have to be the male end to plug into the other box?

Thank you, sorry for such a basic question.

2

Does not really matter what way round you do it but a good rule of thumb is to make the box that supplies the signals/power have the female connector (holes) and the receiving box the male connector (pins).

3

The common practice is:
the box that has the live "power" has the female connectors for greater human protection from a finger touching a live power connection.

The box that is the "dead" load gets the male connector. Touching an exposed male pin that has no electrical supply is "safe".

4

Riva:
Does not really matter what way round you do it but a good rule of thumb is to make the box that supplies the signals/power have the female connector (holes) and the receiving box the male connector (pins).

Paulcs:
The common practice is:
the box that has the live "power" has the female connectors for greater human protection from a finger touching a live power connection.

The box that is the "dead" load gets the male connector. Touching an exposed male pin that has no electrical supply is "safe".

Thank you both! I understood why it was safer one way, but wasn't sure if there was any actual functional reason why. :slight_smile: I'll be putting the female connector on the power side not only for the safety reason, but because it's the box that will get more handling abuse, so a female connector will take less damage.

5

Paulcs:
the box that has the live "power" has the female connectors for greater human protection from a finger touching a live power connection.

But equally to prevent shorting out the power supply if the pins touch a metal object. Such as the rim of the socket.