Tyler Durden's Fight Club Blog: Cable Chick's Cable & Connector Guide

Cable Chick's Cable & Connector Guide

Posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 by Tyler Durden in

Welcome to the Cable Chick Connector Reference Chart!

This exhaustive and comprehensive table of plugs and sockets has been designed to help you find our what you have or discover what you need across our entire range of cables and accessories.
Where possible, we've tried to include important information regarding what each type of connector is used for, what makes it special, and where you're likely to find one around the home. If you find the type of cable you're after, you can click the name in the header tab (the green bit) and jump straight to that category to see what we have on offer!
Not all cables are available in all lengths, and our plug measurements are there to help you distinguish between similar looking connectors. Happy browsing!

Table of Contents Jump-List
HDMI	TOSLINK	VGA
DVI	Audio Jack	RCA & A/V
DisplayPort	S-Video & SCART	USB
Tablet and Smartphone	Speaker Wire	TV Coaxial
Firewire & SATA	Computer Cables	Power Leads
Telephone	Ethernet	Pro Audio

HDMI	Available in lengths from 0.5m to 20m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
Type A 13.9mm x 4.45mm	Digital Video + Audio (& Ethernet v1.4) HDMI is the latest commercial standard for high-definition digital video and audio signals in the one connection. v1.3 cables are capable of current-generation high-definition and 3D output, while v1.4 will cater to the next-gen 2k x 4k super-high definition and even better 3D signals along with wired network support.	Modern Televisions, Monitors, Laptops, Blu-ray, DVD, PVR, Projectors, X-Box 360, PS3, Personal Computers & more!
Type C (Mini HDMI) 10.42mm x 2.42mm		Camcorders, Digital Cameras, Notebooks, Tablet PCs and other small A/V devices.
Type D (Micro HDMI) 6.4mm x 2.8mm		Tablet PCs, Camcorders, Digital Cameras and other miniaturized A/V devices.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

TOSLINK

Available in lengths from 1m to 15m

Plug (Male)	Socket (Female)	Name	Format/Use	Found On
		TOSLINK (S/PDIF Digital Optical) 7mm x 6mm	Digital Audio TOSLINK is a compact and convenient method of carrying high-quality digital audio signals over fibre optic cable. Digital Optical connections are a popular auxiliary output for when quality matters.	CD, DVD, Blu-ray, Personal Computers & Gaming Consoles Socket is commonly found with a flap/door covering to protect against dust and dirt.
		Mini-TOSLINK (3.5mm Digital Optical) 14.5mm x 3.5mm		Apple Computers, MiniDisc Players & other personal audio devices. Socket can be easily confused with 3.5mm stereo audio jack.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

VGA	Available in lengths from 1.8m to 40m

Plug (Male)	Socket (Female)	Name	Format/Use	Found On
		VGA (15-Pin D-Sub) 17mm x 8.5mm	Analogue Video Although largely replaced by DVI, VGA inputs and outputs are still common on laptops and TVs.	Personal Computers, Monitors, Projectors & Televisions.
		Mini VGA 10.6mm x 5mm	Analogue Video Not to be confused with Mini-DisplayPort, this older Apple connection is making a comeback on tablets and netbooks	Select Tablets & Laptops.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

DVI	Available in lengths from 1.8m to 10m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
DVI-A (Analogue) 25mm x 8mm	Digital or Analogue Video Signals are compatible with both VGA (analogue) and HDMI (digital) for easy conversion. This is the only common standard that includes both digital and analogue signals. Connectors can range from 12+5 to 24+5 pins. The flat pin on a DVI-I male connecter is wider than the same pin on a DVI-D connector.	Personal Computers, Monitors & Televisions.
DVI-D Dual Link (Digital) 25mm x 8mm		Personal Computers, Monitors & Televisions.
DVI-I Dual Link (Integrated Analogue and Digital) 25mm x 8mm		Personal Computers, Monitors & Televisions.
Mini DVI (Integrated Analogue and Digital) 11.2mm x 7.1mm	Digital or Analogue Video Supports up to 1920x1200 resolution for compatiblity with HDMI, VGA and DVI (single link) Replaced by Mini-DisplayPort	Select Apple computers and laptops

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

Audio Jack (TRS)

Available in lengths from 50cm to 5m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
2.5mm Stereo Audio Jack (TRS Connector) 11mm x 2.5mm	Analogue Audio (Stereo or Mono) TRS stands for 'Tip, Ring, Sleeve', and describes the three-part construction that carries the stereo left, stereo right and ground currents respectively. They have been the ubiquitous audio connection for most of the last century, and offer high audio quality for headphones and small stereo speakers. Analogue Audio or Video (Stereo plus Mic) TRRS jacks have an extra connection, typically for microphone input but sometimes used for composite video. They are the same physical size as a regular jack and are most common in the 3.5mm pin size. TRS, TRRS and Mini-TOSLINK ports can be easily confused (especially on Apple products), and are not always compatible with each other.	Pocket PCs and other miniaturized PDA devices. Sometimes found on telephone headsets.
2.5mm Mono Audio Jack (TRS Connector) 11mm x 2.5mm
3.5mm Stereo Audio Jack (TRS Connector) 14mm x 3.5mm		Personal Computers, Laptops, Headphones, MP3 players, Mobile Phones, PDAs, DVD Players, Radios and much more!
3.5mm Mono Audio Jack (TRS Connector) 14mm x 3.5mm
3.5mm 4-Pole Audio Jack (TRRS Connector) 14mm x 3.5mm		Smartphones, Microphone Headsets, Balanced Audio, In-Car AV systems.
6.5mm Stereo Audio Jack (Quarter-Inch TRS Connector) 30mm x 6.5mm		High-end Stereo Headphones, A/V and Stereo Receivers, Aviation Headsets, Mixing Decks and other audio equipment.
6.5mm Mono Audio Jack (Quarter-Inch TRS Connector) 30mm x 6.5mm

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

RCA (A/V Connector)

Available in lengths from 1.5m to 20m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
Component Video (YPbPr) 15mm x 12mm	High Definition Analogue Video Supports up to 1080p video, and is typically combined with Left & Right RCA Audio.	Receivers, Televisions, Media Players, etc.
Composite Video with Left & Right Audio 15mm x 12mm	Standard Definition Analogue Video Supports up to 480i (720 x 576i) video, plus stereo (L&R) audio.	Receivers, Televisions, VCRs, Laserdiscs, Old-School Consoles and A/V Equipment
Digital Coaxial Audio(S/PDIF) 15mm x 12mm	High Quality Digital Audio Supports Dolby Digital and DTS Audio up to 7.1 surround sound.	Receivers, Televisions, Media Players, and other high-end audio equipment.
Subwoofer RCA(1RCA to 2RCA) 15mm x 12mm	Left & Right Stereo Audio / Dedicated Subwoofer Channel For Analogue Stereo Audio and connecting amplifiers/receivers to subwoofers with 2 RCA Inputs	Subwoofers, Stereo Amplifiers, DVD Players

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

DisplayPort

Available in lengths from 1m to 5m

Plug (Male)	Socket (Female)	Name	Format/Use	Found On
		DisplayPort 16mm x 4.5mm	Digital Video Designed to replace DVI and VGA Thunderbolt Multi-purpose Data transfer. Thunderbolt uses the same form factor and plug type as Mini-DisplayPort, but expands the standard to support use for file transfer, Firewire and more. * Not all Mini-DispalyPort sockets are Thunderbolt compatible!	Apple PCs and Laptops, Computer Monitors and PC Video Cards/GPUs.
		Mini-DisplayPort & Thunderbolt 7.5mm x 4.5mm		Apple Notebooks and Netbooks.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

Other Video Standards

Available in lengths from 1.8m to 40m

Plug (Male)	Socket (Female)	Name	Format/Use	Found On
		SCART (EIA Multiport) 43mm x 13mm	Standard Definition Video and Audio Common in European devices and some Foxtel units.	Foxtel Boxes & some TV's
		S-Video (SVHS, Y/C) 6mm x 8.5mm	Analogue Video S-Video is still found as an auxiliary input or output on many types of AV Equipment.	Laptops, VCRs, Set Top Boxes, DVD Players, Receivers and Televisions, etc. Not to be confused with PS/2 ports for keyboards and mice.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

USB	Available in lengths from 1m to 5m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
USB Type A (Standard A USB) 12mm x 4.2mm	Data Transfer & Gadget Charging USB cables are everywhere these days. There's a size and a type for everything, from flash drives to external sound cards, and from printers to camcorders. If it has data on it, or can be charged at low voltage, it's likely going to have at least one USB port! Proprietary Design USB Connectors If your USB cable / socket does not look like any listed here, it is possible your device features one of many non-standard 'proprietary' USB connectors, where the shape of the connector is modified by a manufacturer to prevent the use of standard USB cables. In such cases, you may need to contact the product supplier for a suitable USB cable.	USB Flash Drives, USB Novelty Gadgets, Media Players, Computers, Printers, Laptops, etc.
USB Type B (Standard B USB) 8mm x 7mm		External Hard Drives, Printers, etc.
Mini USB 4 Pin (USB Mini-B) 4.5mm x 3.5mm		Kodak Cameras, Other Digital Cameras, etc.
Mini USB 5-Pin (USB Mini-B) 7mm x 3mm		Cameras, Portable Hard Drives, Mobile Phones, Portable Media Players, etc.
Micro USB (USB Micro-B) 7mm x 2mm		Mobile Phones & some Android Smartphones, Tablets and other miniature electronic devices.
USB 3.0 Type A 12mm x 4.2mm	Data Transfer & Gadget Charging Designed to be backwards compatible where possible, USB 3.0 can be identified by the blue plastic spacers and sometimes by additional connector pins attached to common USB 2.0 shaped sockets.	Personal Computers, External Hard Drives & High Speed PC Peripherals
USB 3.0 Type B 8mm x 10.5mm		>External Hard Drives, Printers and other high-speed devices.
USB 3.0 Micro B 12.5mm x 2mm		External Hard Drives, Cameras and other high-speed devices.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

Tablet & Smartphone

Available in lengths from 1m to 5m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
Apple Dock 30-Pin 22mm x 2.6mm	Apple Dock Charge and Sync capability for your Apple mobile devices. Also found on speaker docks, vehicle iPod kits and video docks.	Apple iPhone 1 to 4S, Apple iPad 1 to 3
Apple Lightning 6.6mm x 1.6mm		Apple iPhone 5 and Up, Apple iPad 4 and Up, Apple Mini
Samsung Galaxy S3 MHL / HDMI 7mm x 2mm	Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) High-Definition Video and Audio output from compatible devices. Generally converted to HDMI for use with TVs, in 5-Pin and 5+6-Pin configurations.	Samsung Galaxy S2 (5-Pin) & Samsung Galaxy S3 / Galaxy S4 (5+6-Pin)

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

Speaker Wire

Available in lengths from 1m to 100m (16, 12 and 10 AWG)

Name	Format/Use	Found On
Speaker Cable & Binding Post	Speaker Audio Speaker wire terminals are typically optional, with bare wire to a binding post offering one less 'link in the chain' between devices. Banana plugs may appear tidier and are easier to remove and replace on equipment that is moved or changed regularly.	Loudspeakers, Subwoofers, Amplifiers, Receivers, Audio Switches, Mixing Decks and other high-end audio equipment.
Banana Plug & Binding Post 17mm x 4mm
Speaker Wire & Push-Terminals (Grip Connector)

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

TV Coaxial

Available in lengths from 0.75m to 15m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
BNC (RF Coaxial) 13.5mm (diam)	Analogue Video & Networking Largely replaced by RCA and digital alternatives.	Network adaptors, radio antennas, closed-circuit and other specialist video equipment.
F-Type (F Connector) 8.5mm x 10.5mm	Radio Frequency & Data Transfer Cable Internet and Terrestrial Television can run over F-Type connections.	Cable Modems, Foxtel and other Cable Television sources, TV Aerials, etc.
TV Aerial (Belling-Lee / PAL TV) 8.5mm x 9mm	Radio Frequency & Data Transfer European & Australian standard for Terrestrial Television antenna connections.	Televisions, Roof Antennas, Radio Receivers, etc.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

Computer Cables

Available in lengths from 0.45m to 5m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
SATA Data (Serial ATA) 14mm x 3.5mm	Internal Hard Drive I/O Data Has largely replaced IDE cables for internal computer hard drive data access.	SATA Hard Disk Drives and PC Motherboards. (SATA 1, 2 & 3 compatible)
SATA Power (Serial ATA) 24mm x 3.5mm	Internal Hard Drive Power Replaces 4-pin Molex connectors (below) on newer hard drives.	SATA Hard Disk Drives. (SATA 1, 2 & 3 compatible)
eSATA (External Serial ATA) 14.5mm x 4.5mm	External Hard Drive Data I/O High speed data transmission (3Gb/s) for external devices.	External/Portable Hard Drives and HDD Caddies, etc. (SATA 1, 2 & 3 compatible)
IDE (ATAPI) 54.5mm x 6mm	Internal Disk Drive Data I/O Max 133 MB/s data rate for optical and hard disc drives.	IDE Hard Drives, Floppy Drives, CD and DVD ROM Drives, PC Motherboards.
Molex Power 21mm x 6.5mm	Internal PC Peripheral Power Ubiquitous power feed between PSUs and PC components.	Hard Disk Drives, Fan Controllers, DVD ROM Drives, etc.
ROM Audio (Internal SP/DIF) 5mm x 2.5mm	Direct Digital Audio This cable facilitates music playback on ROM drives that don't feature Digital Audio Extraction.	Internal PC DVD- and CD-ROM Drives.
Firewire 400 4-Pin (IEEE 1394b 4-Pin) 5.5mm x 3mm	Real-Time High-Speed Data Transfer Also known as i.LINK and Lynx, the Firewire standard is typically used on digital audio, digital video and data storage devices for PC and Apple computers. Potential speeds range between 400 and 3200 Mb/s. Plug types can be converted using adapters, and run at the rate of the slowest port capacity.	Apple Notebooks and Computers, Digital Video Cameras and Camcorders, Data Storage Devices and External Hard Drives.
Firewire 400 6-Pin (IEEE 1394a 6-Pin) 11mm x 6mm
Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394 9-Pin) 10mm x 7.5mm
PS/2 (6-Pin Mini-DIN) 6mm x 8.5mm	Mouse and Keyboard I/O Now replaced by USB on new computers and laptops.	Personal Computers and other legacy PC peripherals including mice and keyboards. Don't confuse with visually similar S-Video ports.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

Power Leads

Available in lengths from 2m to 5m

Plug (Male)	Socket (Female)	Name	Format/Use	Found On
		Australian Mains Power (AS 3112 / Type I) 20mm x 39mm	Mains Power Also common in an unearthed version with only two angled pins.	Australian Mains Power Points, Powered consumer white goods and electronic devices.
		IEC Power (IEC C13 / C14) 23mm x 26mm	Mains Power S-Video is still found as an auxiliary input or output on many types of AV Equipment.	PCs, Televisions, Monitors, Amps, UPSs, and many other electronic devices.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

Communications

Available in lengths from 0.5m to 100m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
Ethernet RJ45 (8P8C / LAN / Cat5 / Crossover) 11.5mm x 6.5mm	Network Data Transfer Capable of speeds up to 100 Gbit/sec for local area networks Cable colours vary.	PCs, Laptops, Modems, Ethernet Routers and Switches, Blu-ray Players, Gaming Consoles, etc.
Australian Telephone Jack (600 Series) 41.5mm x 10.5mm	Telephone Slowly being phased out and replaced by RJ12 sockets (below).	Older model Telephones and Fax machines.
RJ12 Telephone Jack (6P4C Modular) 9mm x 6mm	Telephone Found on all modern home and office telephony equipment including faxes.	ADSL & Dial-Up Modems, Telephones, Faxes and other telephony equipment.

Measurements are for the male plug: displayed as (width x height) or (length x diameter) as necessary. Go to TOP OF PAGE

Pro & Performance Audio

Available in lengths from 0.8m to 21m

Name	Format/Use	Found On
XLR Connector (XLR3) 16-18mm x 13mm	Balanced Audio Connector High quality microphone connection.	Microphones and performance music equipment.
Speakon 20mm x 17mm	High Current Professional Audio For connecting microphones to loudspeakers and amplifiers.	Microphones, loudspeakers, amplifiers and performance music equipment.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) 10mm x 12.5mm	Musical Instrument Communications Allows synchronisation between instruments and computers.	Keyboards, synthesizers, audio controllers, mixers and other specialised computer hardware.