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Numerous questions exist that seek to identify a name for a particular connector.

How can I go about learning these names, or self-identifying a particular connector using web resources?

Mark Harrison
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    Spend a lot of time thumbing through the catalog of your favorite distributor page-by-page. (just kidding, no more paper catalogs available for this) – The Photon Jul 31 '23 at 15:22
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    @ThePhoton thumbing? are you referring to a new kind of touchscreen I have never heard about? :) – Mark Harrison Jul 31 '23 at 15:38

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First you must understand that, by my count, only 30 % of industry-standard connectors have a name that is widely accepted by the industry (e.g, "pin-and-socket"). About 10 % have "street names" (e.g., "DuPont") that have no basis on what manufacturers call them. The rest have no name, which is why I took the liberty to coin terms for many of them (e.g., "single-wall connectors").

The proprietary connectors have names assigned to them by their manufacturers (e.g., "Sure-Lok"), consortia (e.g., "USB-C"), or standards organizations (e.g., "BNC").

Please allow me to offer you my Identicon utility that lists the names of all connectors, whether official, street name, or coined by me.

Davide Andrea
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@vir comments:

I go on Digikey and select what I think is the best category - in this case rectangular connector housings - then select the number of pins, number of rows, and pitch (0.98"/2.5mm). That usually narrows it down to a few pages and from there it only takes a minute to scroll through and look at the pictures.

(note; This answer was by @vir in a comment to another question. I thought it would be useful as a full question/answer. @vir, if you wish to post this as an answer I will delete this answer in favor of yours.)

Mark Harrison
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