Quote:
Originally Posted by
kludgeaudio
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Will those LK-type plugs actually interoperate with the real thing? If so, I am really interested.
I see a lot of Chinese multipin connectors which are copies of Russian military types, sometimes with weird adaptations. Surprisingly, a lot of them have good gold plating, which makes me think that maybe they are from suppliers to the Chinese military. Haven't seen LK copies or Whirlwind hermaphrodite copies yet.
--scott
As far as I know they're supposed to be compatible and that's what my boss told me, as he'd bought them for that installation on the understanding that they're interoperable with real LK's, which can be hired locally, but of course I'd like to see that in real life before I depended on it.
I'll be talking to the guys doing that install tomorrow so I'll see if I can find out the brand of these cheap copies
I hadn't thought of it but your idea about the military source makes a lot of sense. Russia and China like the West still have a lot of decades-old military stuff they need to keep in service and it would make sense again if they're using that type of connector. I've seen Vietnam war-era photos of a Hughes LOH chopper with a minigun in the door with what looks a lot like a Socapex connecting it to the helicopter, though I understand they're simply both based on the MIL-5015 (IIRC) spec and likely quite different.
I'd only seen those hermaphrodite* connectors by LK before, lovely high quality parts and very expensive, I wasn't aware of a Whirlwind version.
*I love words like that, with Greek or Latin mythological roots - Hermes and Aphrodite together in one word.