Connectors

The 24 connector families and their end variants: dimensions, sources, keying, and what is simplified.

Connectors

Every plug on its cable, 15 mm in front of its receptacle

The 24 connector families: each plug on a short piece of its cable, 15 mm in front of the fixed receptacle derived from it (sockets.usdc), rendered in Blender. The BNC plug is seen from the side, its bayonet slots in line with the jack's studs.

Looks of the real parts. Ports have a metal shell around their opening (USB, HDMI, RJ45, XLR, M12) in a dark device face; power inlets are black with metal pins, DC jacks black with a metal centre pin, the IDC header black with gold pins, servo ports, jumper headers and D-sub panels with gold pins, the breadboard white, and wall sockets white. The battery plug is yellow nylon, the balance plug natural white. The BNC plug and jack are bare nickel-plated metal, the plug with a black boot. Power plugs have bare metal pins (the Europlug's with insulated sleeves), XLR and M12 plugs a black insert in their metal rim, and male XLR and M12 receptacles metal pins. The tongue or insert inside a receptacle has its own colour, the 3.5 mm plug its two insulator rings, and RJ45 and RJ9 plugs are clear plastic (UsdPreviewSurface opacity and ior). These looks are visual only: the same solids are cut by colour, so the colliders, masses and insertion results do not depend on them.

Family	Cable side (plug)	Contacts	Receptacle on a cable	Fixed receptacle	Keying	Depth
`usb_c`	USB-C plug	male	USB-C receptacle	USB-C port	reversible	6.65 mm
`usb_a`	USB-A plug	male		USB-A port	keyed	12 mm
`usb_micro`	Micro-B plug	male		Micro-B port	keyed	5.6 mm
`hdmi_a`	HDMI plug	male	HDMI receptacle	HDMI port	keyed	9.5 mm
`rj45`	RJ45 plug	male	RJ45 coupler	RJ45 jack	keyed	14 mm
`rj9`	RJ9 plug	male		RJ9 handset jack	keyed	10 mm
`jack35`	3.5 mm plug	male	3.5 mm socket	3.5 mm socket	none	15 mm
`c13`	C13 connector	female	C14 plug	C14 inlet	keyed	13 mm
`c7`	C7 connector	female		C8 inlet	reversible	10 mm
`cee77`	CEE 7/7 plug	male		wall socket (simplified)	reversible	34 mm
`cee716`	Europlug	male		Europlug socket (simplified)	reversible	25 mm
`xlr3`	XLR3 female	female	XLR3 male	XLR3 male (panel)	keyed	11 mm
`m12a`	M12 A-coded female	female		M12 male (panel)	keyed	8 mm
`idc10`	IDC socket 2 × 5	female		box header 2 × 5	keyed	6 mm
`dc5521`, `dc5525`, `dc4017`	DC plug 5.5 × 2.1, 5.5 × 2.5, 4.0 × 1.7 mm	male	DC jack	DC jack	none	9.5 mm
`dsub9`	DE-9 female	female	DE-9 male	DE-9 male (panel)	keyed	6 mm
`servo3`	servo plug, 3 sockets 2.54 mm	female	servo extension (3 pins)	servo port (3 pins in a slot)	keyed	6 mm
`pin_m`	jumper pin	male	jumper socket	breadboard contact	square	6 mm
`pin_f`	jumper socket	female		header pin	square	6 mm
`batt35`	battery plug, 3.5 mm bullets (60 A class)	female	battery plug, male	battery plug, male (board)	keyed	8 mm
`bal5`	balance plug 5-pin 2.5 mm	female		balance header (charger, BMS)	keyed	6 mm
`bnc`	BNC plug, 50 Ω	male	BNC jack	BNC jack (panel)	reversible, bayonet: quarter turn to lock	11.5 mm

Gender and role are kept apart. Gender is the contact gender of the standard; role is geometric: the plug enters, the receptacle receives. An IEC C13 has female contacts but enters the C14 inlet; an XLR3 female enters the shell of the male. filaire:contactGender and filaire:role say both.

The receptacle is derived from the plug. Each plug is described by its cross-sections, layer by layer from the tip (a CEE 7/7 plug: two pins, then the round face that enters the socket's recess). In each layer, the receptacle's solid is its outline minus the plug's cross-section grown by the clearance (0.05–0.3 mm). The plug's holes become the receptacle's pins or tongue, the plug's key becomes the keyway, and the two always mate. The keying is then found by turning the plug in 15° steps and testing for overlap, and a test checks it against the standard's.

The same test answers which plug goes into which receptacle across families (fits(plug, angle, socket=other)). For the DC barrels it gives the real behaviour: the derived jacks get a centre pin from the plug's bore, so a 5.5 × 2.5 mm plug goes loosely onto a 5.5 × 2.1 mm jack, while a 5.5 × 2.1 mm plug is stopped by the thicker pin of a 5.5 × 2.5 mm jack.

Plug faces and the receptacles derived from them

filaire connectors: the plug seen from its tip (left) and the fixed receptacle seen from the front (right): opening in dark, pins and tongues in light grey.

Dimensions come from published figures where they could be found (USB-C receptacle opening and insertion length, HDMI plug and receptacle, RJ45 and RJ9 widths and heights, 3.5 mm diameter and length, CEE 7 pins and recess depth, IEC 60320 pin spacing, Micro-B receptacle opening, DC barrel diameters and the 4.0 × 1.7 mm barrel length, D-sub shell and flange and its 2.77 mm pitch, 2.54 mm and 2.5 mm header pitches and 0.64 mm posts, the battery plug's 7.2 mm pitch, the BNC barrel, sleeve, pin and coupling nut diameters and its quarter turn); the others (XLR, M12, IDC, C13 face, Micro-B chamfers, 5.5 mm barrel length, servo, jumper, battery and balance housings, BNC studs and slots, inner cavities, overmolds) are approximate and marked so in connectors.py, each with its sources. The standards themselves were not consulted. Connectors are simplified: no latches that move, no threads, no contacts inside the holes, no logos. Families that come from one maker's product line are given generic names (battery plug, balance plug, jumper wire), with their geometry drawn from public dimensions.