Cables with 10+ wires/pins

[Aer Fixus]

I'm looking for a cable (and associated ports) that has at least 10 wires/pins. I'll only be using 10, hence the 10+ however, I'd like it to be a space efficient as possible. That means that I don't want a massive connector or incredibly thick cables. A serial cable would be good, but it only has 9 pins. I even though of chopping up a USB 3.0 cable, but that only has 9 pins as well. I've also thought about VGA cables, but they are a bit too thick for what I want. It does need to flex a bit more than that. I'd like to stay away from RJ45 style connectors due to the plastic tab that can break off.

Oh, and knowing what I'm working on might help:
It's a 60% Model M with an optional numpad (and extra features that are irrelevant to this particular post. They involve cutting, taping, melting, epoxy and wood).

[tjcaustin]

HDMI should work.  Or if you want something else, you might be able to get evalucon SN connectors in the right pin count.

http://evalucon.com/images/sn.pdf

I think you'd need like an SN-10-10(P) and SN-10-10(RPCB)

[mkawa]

i think before you take on this kind of project, you need to go back to first principles. you want 9 conductors, i'm guessing in a transmission line, because if all you wanted was to carry DC current, you wouldn't need more than a couple of conductors. have you thought about starting with some of the simple guided projects that adafruit or sparkfun sell? a favorite initial project of mine is to put together a very simple DMM, since you'll need one for future projects. small motor projects are also fun. i would stay away from microcontroller-based projects. just start with the basics of voltage and current.

a second fun analog project is to build a simple negative feedback amplifier using a monolithic operational amplifier (made famous by Chu Moy aka the CMoy). i would not start by trying to screw around with ancient model M FCBs.

[Aer Fixus]

i think before you take on this kind of project, you need to go back to first principles. you want 9 conductors, i'm guessing in a transmission line, because if all you wanted was to carry DC current, you wouldn't need more than a couple of conductors. have you thought about starting with some of the simple guided projects that adafruit or sparkfun sell? a favorite initial project of mine is to put together a very simple DMM, since you'll need one for future projects. small motor projects are also fun. i would stay away from microcontroller-based projects. just start with the basics of voltage and current.

a second fun analog project is to build a simple negative feedback amplifier using a monolithic operational amplifier (made famous by Chu Moy aka the CMoy). i would not start by trying to screw around with ancient model M FCBs.

In my physics and electronics courses, we've dealt with basic circuits. I play with amplifiers and other spare electronics in my spare time (one of my most recent projects was transplanting the cpu of a Super GameBoy into a GameBoy. I've also built my own gameboy flash cartridge and programmer, although I did not design the circuit). I'm not new to electronics, but that said, I'm not claiming to be that knowledgeable, considering there are many, many people who work with electronics every day and know more than I do.

I decided at the start that I wanted to use IBM's controller, not my own. It would be an extra step that I wouldn't have to deal with, and it would work over PS2 with no trouble at all. Plus, I like working with restrictions. I've often found that my best ideas come from adding some restrictions. In this case: keep it simple. Point A to Point B. No overly complex circuitry for something that can be done more simply, even if it is not as elegant.

I don't currently know of a way to simply transmit multiple DC signals over a twisted pair or similar connection without a microcontroller. I thought it would be simple to just use a cable that could carry 10+ DC signals, so i decided on that instead of finding/programming a few chips to do what I want.

HDMI should work.  Or if you want something else, you might be able to get evalucon SN connectors in the right pin count.

http://evalucon.com/images/sn.pdf

I think you'd need like an SN-10-10(P) and SN-10-10(RPCB)

HDMI looks like a simple solution that's widely available. And since I can go small with it, should I do it? Micro (type D) seems like it would be great, but I know that smaller connectors, like USB mini have issues when it comes to cable stress (tips breaking off, etc). I can't find anything about someone complaining that it broke off, so unless someone says otherwise, I think this is what I'll do.

[mkawa]

I don't currently know of a way to simply transmit multiple DC signals over a twisted pair or similar connection without a microcontroller

what?

ok, let's back up here. you want a cable with ten conductors. i don't know what you want to do with it, so we're going to assume the worst and assume that each conductor will see fairly high voltage and current. constructing such a cable is very very simple. first, buy a spool of hookup wire. because we're assuming you're going to really put some current through these conductors, let's go with 18ga stranded. you can go ahead and choose the number of color conductors you want, but really, 10 18ga stranded conductors is a hell of a lot of metal, so you should be able to do anything you want with that.

now, you want an convenient connector harness with lots of mounting options that carries these ten conductors. again, super easy, i would stick to the classic molex minifit jr. line. go with 2 rows of 5 conductors each, and use the standard crimp pin. crimpers for these pins on 18ga are incredibly common and super easy to use. basically, you're just making ATX-style cables, and the convenience of this is that the parts are literally everywhere. 2x5 isn't really super popular in computers, but that entire connector series is stupid easy to find -- molex is not even close to the only vendor of them. because they're used by so many standards, there is literally tooling everywhere to make the connectors and connector parts.

so that seems to solve your problem, eh? if there is some issue with this solution, can you precisely express what it is?

[TheSoulhunter]

If VGA is too thick, how about mini VGA?

[Oobly]

Mini HDMI or mini Displayport should do the trick. More contacts than you need, but standardised. Mini VGA is not a standard and it's very hard to get connectors.

[Aer Fixus]

I don't currently know of a way to simply transmit multiple DC signals over a twisted pair or similar connection without a microcontroller

what?

ok, let's back up here. you want a cable with ten conductors. i don't know what you want to do with it

because if all you wanted was to carry DC current, you wouldn't need more than a couple of conductors.

When I saw this, I thought you knew what I was working with and was suggesting I could condense separate DC signals from 10 cables into two (a twisted pair).

I am rerouting the traces on the Model Ms membrane (from the numpad I will be cutting off, but allowing to be reattached). It won't be carrying much current at all. The numpad has 10 separate traces, 4 on the bottom layer, 6 on the top layer. I need to connect these traces to their respective pins on the IBM controller board, but since the numpad will be cut off and separate from the keyboard and the controller board, I need to do it via detachable cable (because the idea of the numpad is that it will be optional if I, or the person using the keyboard wishes to leave it off).

Now, I could easily make my own cable, but it would likely be more bulky than a commercialized/standardized cable. The molex minifit jr seems fine, but I've had trouble separating molex connectors similar to this once they are together (something I don't want on a connector that has the potential to be added and removed fairly often).

HDMI Micro seems to be a great fit. I couldn't find any instances of it breaking off, although i don't think there are any instances of people using it quite like this. It does have more connectors than I need, but the form factor compared to, say: serial, like I was originally planning, it is wonderfully small.

Mini HDMI or mini Displayport should do the trick. More contacts than you need, but standardised. Mini VGA is not a standard and it's very hard to get connectors.

I though about mini Displayport, but couldn't find any female plugs at the time. I've found some now, so I might go with that as I like the form factor slightly better than mini and micro HDMI, but either one will work.

Edit: micro HDMI already has plenty of pins to work with. Mini Displayport is even more overkill, plus the cable is thicker and more expensive.