Abstract: An electrical connector includes a housing having cavities that can receive mating electrical connectors. The cavities are arranged as vertically aligned pairs. The housing holds visual indicators which are associated with the cavities. The visual indicators for each vertically aligned pair are arranged in a rectangular array with one visual indicator at each exterior corner of the vertically aligned pair. At least some of the visual indicators have leads which extend along a rear of the housing. These leads are installed in a retainer prior to installation of the visual indicators in the housing. The visual indicators and the retainer form a subassembly which can be installed on the housing as a unit.

Abstract: This invention is directed to a patch cord cable assembly for use in a high speed transmission cable network, more particularly to an electrical connector which gives the assembly the capability of transmitting data at 100 MHz frequency while offering near-end crosstalk (NEXT) at EIA/TIA 568-A Category 5 performance levels. The preferred electrical connector comprises a pair of interfitting housing members, and a plurality of side-by-side electrical terminals positioned between the housing members for establishing electrical contact with the individual wires of a cable. The terminals are arranged at essentially one end of the housing members and the cable is caused to enter said housing members from an opposite end thereof. One of the housing members includes a cable jacket stop intermediate the ends and plural, spaced-apart posts between the cable jacket stop and the one end.

Abstract: Invention is directed to a high performance, shielded electrical connector which exceeds EIA/TIA 568-A requirements for Category 5 applications. A preferred connector is a modular jack, such as an array of modular jacks mounted to a printed circuit board, grounded within a metal housing. The connector comprises a dielectric housing having a top surface, a printed circuit board engaging surface, a pair of side walls, and a front surface, and at least one cavity extending interiorly from the front surface thereof for electrically engaging a complementary electrical connector. The connector includes a one-piece shielding member, stamped and formed from a sheet metal blank, to offer low resistance grounding of the connector. The shielding member is adapted to lie contiguous with at least the top surface and the side walls, and includes a plurality of cantilevered tabs struck from the walls of the metal shielding member. The tabs are elongated and extend from an internal location toward the front surface.

Abstract: The invention relates to an electrical connector, or wire connecting block, of the type for electrically interconnecting a set of first conductors to an associated set of second conductors. The connector comprises a dielectric housing defined by a pair of side walls and containing a plurality of through cavities therebetween. The cavities for slidably receiving a like plurality of slotted beam contacts are characterized by a first uniform width over a portion of its length, a second portion having a uniform width greater than the first uniform width, and an angled wall transition portion between the uniform portions. Externally, the housing is provided with a like plurality of thin walled sections along one of the side walls, where each said thin walled section is aligned with a corresponding angled wall transition portion within a given cavity.

Abstract: This invention relates to electrical connector terminal arrays, having interference canceling characteristics that meet or exceed the performance requirements of Category 5 components. The arrays are suited for producing connectors of the type for mounting to a printed circuit board. The connectors comprise a dielectric housing into which are mounted four pairs of electrical conductors. The conductors are arranged essentially in parallel fashion where the respective one ends thereof are spaced apart a first uniform distance, and the other respective ends thereof are spaced apart a second uniform distance greater than the first uniform distance. The conductors are further characterized by being arranged in a non-contact overlapping arrangement with the respective conductors of each outer pair in a single overlap of each other. The respective conductors of the center pair cross each other and then each crosses the adjacent conductor twice.

Abstract: The disclosure is directed to a method of manufacturing a shorting bar insert for placement in a modular jack assembly to provide for the selective shorting of predetermined contacts during periods of nonelectrical engagement, with a modular plug, such as for an 8 position miniature modular jack in accordance with USOC STYLE RJ48X, for example. The method comprises the steps of preparing a strip of stamped contacts from a planar sheet metal blank joined together by a removable carrier strip having a front face and a back face, where the contacts are formed in pairs in parallel relationship and joined together at their ends remote from the carrier strip, the carrier strip including registration means, such as holes, offset from the centerline of each respective pair of contacts.

Abstract: An electrical connector (4) terminated to signal wires (SW) of a shielded electrical cable (C) having a drain wire (DW), has an insulating housing (8) containing electrical terminals having contacts (40) electrically connected to the signal wires of the shielded electrical cable (C). A metal shield (14) covering the lower part of the housing (8) has a grounding clip (48) connected to the rear wall (28) of the shield (14) by means of a strap (62). The grounding clip receives an end portion of the cable (C) from which the signal wires (SW) extend to the contacts (40) of the connector (4). The drain wire (DW) is wound in a circuitous path about tabs (58) of the grounding clip (48). The grounding clip can be bent about the strap (62) to line in a channel (36) between two rows of the contacts (40) of the connector (4), after the grounding clip has been wound about with insulative tape (T).

Abstract: A contact assembly for a modular receptacle includes an array of substantially coplanar contacts which are held in position by first and second insulators. The contacts are exposed between the two insulators, and a latch mechanism holds the two insulators in the desired transversely oriented relationship with respect to one another. This contact assembly can be formed by insert molding the insulators around the contacts in a substantially coplanar configuration, and then bending the exposed central portions of the contacts to latch the two insulators into the final transverse orientation.

Abstract: An electrical device intended for surface mounting has an insulating body and leads extending from the body. Each lead has an integral spring portion and an end portion. The insulating body has an aligning or locating stop and the lead adjacent to its end is biased against the locating stop by the integral spring. The locating stop thus ensures that the extreme ends of the leads will be in aligned coplanar relationship. The terminals are also formed with an integral spring which spring biases the lead portions against the stop means and spring biases a retention barb further into retentive condition.

Abstract: A connector assembly comprising a modular jack receiving a modular plug for interconnecting multiple contact elements in contact terminals located laterally in a row is disclosed. Nonadjacent contact elements in one of the connectors can be shunted by at least one separate shunting element. Interengagement of the two connectors can shift the shunting element to disconnect the bridged contact elements. The shunting elements are positioned such that a mating connector having a width no greater than the spacing of the shunting elements will not disengage the bridged connection.

Abstract: An electrical connector intended for mounting on a printed circuit board has an insulating body and leads extending from the body. Each lead has an integral spring portion and an end portion. The insulating body has an aligning or locating stop and the lead adjacent to its end is biased against the locating stop by the integral spring. The locating stop thus ensures that the extreme ends of the leads will be in aligned coplanar relationship. The terminals are also formed with an integral spring which spring biases the lead portions against the stop means and spring biases a retention barb further into retentive condition.