Connectors: Which is male and which is female?

littleharbor2

Being that extension cables have the opposite situation when connecting to a solar panel, male into female and vice versa, I always considered the +, positive connector on the panel to be the male. This is actually opposite to conventional thought. The positive connector has the female internal terminal although externally it looks to be male. Probably confusing because of this. 

The photos show the internal parts and if you look at the the top of the first photo closely you can see "+" and "-" markings.

OutsourcedGuru

edurbrow said:

Which is male and which is female?

Honestly, this seems easy to me. Do a Google -> Image search for "MC-4 female" and it results in the male-looking plug. Buy two bags of MC-4 connectors from NAZ—ten each—and they arrive with the word "female" written on the side with a Sharpie of the male-looking plastic plugs.   And then the other bag will have "male" on them and they are the female-looking plastic receptacles.

Apparently, this decision stems from the single metallic connector buried inside the connector itself rather than the locking plastic mechanism. In conductor terms, the female receives the male.

Also, you can take the two bags of connectors to a Starbucks in California and see which bathroom they crawl toward. /YesThisIsHumorOnTheInternet

littleharbor2

OutsourcedGuru said:

edurbrow said:

Which is male and which is female?

Honestly, this seems easy to me. Do a Google -> Image search for "MC-4 female" and it results in the male-looking plug. Buy two bags of MC-4 connectors from NAZ—ten each—and they arrive with the word "female" written on the side with a Sharpie of the male-looking plastic plugs.   And then the other bag will have "male" on them and they are the female-looking plastic receptacles.

Apparently, this decision stems from the single metallic connector buried inside the connector itself rather than the locking plastic mechanism. In conductor terms, the female receives the male.

Also, you can take the two bags of connectors to a Starbucks in California and see which bathroom they crawl toward. /YesThisIsHumorOnTheInternet

And, the female is the positive when coming off the solar panel. Sounds wrong, to me anyway.

JRHill

When I first saw the Subject I had to look through it and the earlier posts didn't disappoint. It was hilarious to me and anything I could tease about was already covered 

Then it got down right mean and anal. Over the years there are only a few styles of connectors that are confusing to me. For example the difference between the male and female connector on the same circuit that are reversed as is convention. But that doesn't mean they can't be connected together because that is something that can happen.. Not good. To me a simple solution is like the clamps on a starting battery cable. Theoretically they are the same style but you cant reverse them unintentionally because one will not fit the other post. So the solution is to immediately mark them from the beginning. I like colored electrical tape. I hate zip ties because they have a habit of getting old and falling off. The best is colored shrink tube. (this is not a racial comment.)

The main thing is for a time way down the road where you have to do something and don't remember like it yesterday OR someone else has to get into it and you didn't make it clear from the beginning.

boB

Old post, oh well...

The male vs. female connector issue that can confuse me is where there is a "pin" in the center but a female "shell" just inside of the the outer-side. 

JRHill

boB said:

Old post, oh well...

Oops - got sucked into this one. But I have to say that there are a LOT of good posts that are stale but still relevant and deserve to come back up. I don't spend any time going through old posts which apparently some people do. And one thing about forums is the search box. Even when you use a key word that you KNOW is in the subject and text the chances are slim you'll find it. Seems Google does a much better job of crawling a forum than the forum's own search tool.

Dave Angelini

Here is a really old one back to Indiana Jones days.