One of the most common questions we get here at DigiKey is requests for mates, contacts, backshells, and many similar products for connectors. Fortunately, this is generally quite easy to find.
For most of our connectors you can simply use the “MATING” and “ASSOCIATED” Product sections on your connector’s product page, as laid out in our TechForum here: How to Find Associated Products/Mating Connectors. Scrolling down on the product page will, more often than not, show you everything you need. When it doesn’t however, there’s a few things you can try. Let’s walk through some common search methodologies using A30294-ND as a handy example.
First of all, you’ll notice that scrolling down to the bottom of the product page for this connector shows a “MATING PRODUCTS” section and an “ASSOCIATED PRODUCT” section, as shown below. This should always be the very first thing you search for, as Rachel instructs in the linked thread above.
Note that by “scroll down”, sometimes you have to go way down there to find these sections, as so:
Should these sections be absent or insufficient however, all is not yet lost. First, let’s go over how to search for a mating product. To begin, decide what type of mate you’re looking for - a board-mounted mate, a panel-mounted mate, or a free-hanging mate (also frequently called an inline mate). The precise method for searching for each of these can be different, but they begin by knowing the key specifications for finding any connector mate: Pitch, Position Count, Number of Rows, Connector Type, and Contact Type.
These are the primary specifications of a connector in DigiKey’s system, and knowing how they interact will allow you to cut out ninety percent of the clutter in a single stroke.
Connector Type generally breaks down to either Plug or Receptacle (sometimes Jack). Plugs mate to Receptacles - two plugs never mate together, and neither do two receptacles. To find a mate for your connector, you should look for the opposite connector type.
Contact Type is usually some form of Male Pin versus Female Socket, though this can vary more widely than Connector Type. The important thing to note is once again that male mates to female. Search for the opposite contact type. Note that “male pin” does not always correspond to Plug, nor does “female socket” always correspond to Receptacle. Both connector types can very easily come in either gender.
Number of Positions is how many separate circuits the connector provides. A 4-position connector such as A30294-ND has four separate circuits you can utilize. This should match when searching for mates - most connectors will not mate with anything that has the wrong position count.
Number of Rows is how many rows the positions within a connector are sorted into. A 1-row connector’s positions are all lined up, while a 2-row such as A30294-ND has two parallel rows of positions. This must match for a connector to qualify as a mate.
Pitch is often the most important spec, and the one most often misunderstood. It measures the distance between positions on the connector and is the most important criteria for ensuring two connectors fit together. This must match, and even seemingly meaningless differences can be dealbreakers. 2.5mm pitch is not the same as 2.54mm pitch. For more information on how to determine the pitch of your connector, please check out our post Pitch of a .Connector
For free-hanging/inline mates, you can use a useful feature of the website to execute a “View Similar” search to find products in the same series, which stand a good chance of being inline mates. To do so, select our three “Must Match” criteria above as well as Series in the little checkboxes on the right side of the Product Attributes table, then click “View Similar” at the bottom of that table.
That will bring you to a page that looks in part like the one shown below. Remembering our rules set above, we need a connector that matches Position Count, Number of Rows, and Pitch, but which has the opposite Connector and Contact Types. So to match A30294-ND, we would need a Plug with Male Pins that fits our other criteria - and it just so happens such a connector is right in our list. Two of them, in fact - one free-hanging, and one connector with panel-mounting locks:
These same two connectors show up in the “MATING PRODUCTS” section of the original connector’s product page, so we know they’re a good match.
Note that for circular connectors such as A1363-ND the same general strategy applies, but you instead replace pitch with Shell Size - Insert, as shown here:
This is the case with most connectors - Connector Type, Contact Type, and Number of Positions are constant, while the specifics that determine mating geometry change by connector type. Rectangular and Circular connectors are by far the most commonly sought-out types, but D-subs, FFC/FPC connectors, and to an extent modular connectors all work similarly.
To find contacts for your connector, you can use another feature of our website - Series Search. In the “Product Attributes” series for many parts, you’ll notice that a series will be listed for the product, and that this ‘Series’ attribute is usually a link.
Click that link, and it will take you to a listing of all the parts that match that series, including a “Top Results” table with some visual cues.
In this case we’re looking for contacts for our example connector A30294-ND, so we click Rectangular Connector Contacts to get a listing of Micro MATE-N-LOK contacts. Since we’re looking for female sockets, we can filter out male pins, and we’ll presume we need 20AWG wire. Applying both of these filters (as well as a few availability filters) leaves us a table of nine options, all of which show up in the “ASSOCIATED PRODUCT” section of the original connector. Same parts, so they work!
This isn’t a fool-proof process, and it does generally require a bit of familiarity with the DigiKey parametric search system and our website. But it’s a great way to start if you’re having trouble finding products to match your needs and our team hasn’t quite caught up with associating a given connector yet. And as always, if you’re having trouble locating what you need, you can contact DigiKey Applications Engineering for assistance.