Overheard a new guy say 'the pins all look the same anyway' on a D-sub repair last week

I was working on a connector at the bench last Tuesday when this apprentice comes over and says that about a 25-pin D-sub we were fixing. He was about to just jam the pins in without checking the layout diagram. I stopped him and showed him the pinout sheet, but it got me thinking about how many folks skip the basic steps on connector repairs. Has anyone else seen corners get cut on D-subs or cannon plugs that came back to bite someone?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy_craig2812d agoTop Commenter

That whole 'they look the same' thing reminds me of a buddy who worked at a shop years ago. He told me about a guy who wired a whole 15-pin D-sub backwards, fried a $2,000 board, and just shrugged it off like it was no big deal.

the_susan12d ago

Did that guy on the 15-pin even own up to it or just blame the board?

-1

samk7712d ago

Oh man, that story is way too familiar. Had a guy in our robotics club do the exact same thing with a motor controller board back in the day. Plugged a 25-pin connector in backwards after someone told him "they're keyed so it only goes one way" and he forced it. Fried the whole thing, smoke came out, and he just said "guess it was defective" and walked off. The worst part was watching him stand there with a straight face while the board was literally still smoking. Some people just cannot admit when they mess up, it's wild.