SMB vs MCX

[Robert Latest]

Hello,

I've used SMB connectors and like them OK. How do they compare to MCX? I'm
making a board that uses a dozen of PCB mount sockets, and in my experience
SMB sometimes require quite high forces for plugging/unplugging. In one case
this destroyed a (commercially-made) PCB.

This is for a laboratory app but the cables won't be plugged frequently.
Maybe (hopefully) not more often than 50 times during the lifetime of the
thing.

robert

 

[John Larkin]

Hello,

I've used SMB connectors and like them OK. How do they compare to MCX? I'm
making a board that uses a dozen of PCB mount sockets, and in my experience
SMB sometimes require quite high forces for plugging/unplugging. In one case
this destroyed a (commercially-made) PCB.

This is for a laboratory app but the cables won't be plugged frequently.
Maybe (hopefully) not more often than 50 times during the lifetime of the
thing.

robert

Both are nice connectors. SMBs have moderately high mating force and
tend to be kind of inconsistant depending on who makes the various
bits. We've broken a couple of SMBs (out of tens of thousands used)
but never damaged a pc board.

MCXs are much smoother and more consistant, a bit loose for my tastes,
as they can be very easy to pull out.

MCXs are theoretically better at high frequencies, but we recently
tested a cable that was SMA-SMB-SMB-SMA and we figure the SMBs added
under 15 ps to the risetime.

MMCX's are nasty... such huge detent forces that they are hard to
un-mate.

If you aren't concerned about vibration/accidental pullout, go with
MCX. Cisco and others use MCXs in systems, so there are tons of cheap
MCX cable assemblies on ebay.

John

 

[Ben Jackson]

I've used SMB connectors and like them OK. How do they compare to MCX? I'm
making a board that uses a dozen of PCB mount sockets, and in my experience
SMB sometimes require quite high forces for plugging/unplugging. In one case
this destroyed a (commercially-made) PCB.

MCX seems pretty snug to me. I was removing a RA MCX cable from an
RA SMT MCX socket and I pulled the socket off the board. The solder
at all four corner grounds and the center signal all cracked. Yay ROHS!
I'm glad I didn't have to try to put that connector back on the board.

 

[Robert Latest]

MMCX's are nasty... such huge detent forces that they are hard to
un-mate.

Yeah, I've heard bad things about them, too.

If you aren't concerned about vibration/accidental pullout, go with
MCX.

Sounds good. Also they're made by several companies, and they're among the
least expensive of all those subminiature coax connectors.

Thanks for the advice,

robert