[sdiy] IDC connector reliability?

[Neil Johnson]

cheater cheater <cheater00 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jarno,
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 9:29 AM, J. Verhoeven <jarno.verhoeven at ziggo.nl> wrote:
>> Gold plating will help with the number of matings and contact resistance,
>
> Not really true. Gold does not help with the number of matings, unless
> it's PVD gold plating, in which case what helps with the number is the
> substrate the gold is applied to.
>
> Gold is used to prevent oxidation when there are long periods between
> mating cycles.
>
> If you want self-healing contacts, you use silver. They increase the
> number of possible matings considerably, however you *have* to cycle
> the connection, otherwise the surface covers in sulfides and you have
> to clean it up. Quite often cleaning up means just mating the
> connector a good several times until the sulfides have been scratched
> off. For more severe cases you can mate with a steel or brass
> connector made specifically for that purpose.

Gold: http://www.te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/aurulrep.pdf

Silver: http://www.te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/Ag_use_connectors_503-1016.pdf

Neil
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