In an electrical commoning arrangement including a printed circuit board with at least two parallel rows of conductive pins mounted therein, a removeable shunt connector for electrically commoning two pins is disclosed. The shunt connector includes a terminal defining at least three colinear pin receiving portions whereby the shunt connector can be selectively mated with two adjacent pins of the same row, or with two corresponding pins of different rows.

An electrical shunting contact and method for producing the same for mounting between adjacent first contacts in a first connector and for self-operatively providing a short circuit between the adjacent first electrical contacts when corresponding second contacts of a second connector are demated from the first connector. The electrical shunting contact comprises a conductive member having opposing legs joined by a resilient bridge, each leg having a non-conductive protuberance projecting outwardly therefrom. Under demated conditions, a contact edge of each leg abuts the adjacent first contacts between which the shunting contact is mounted to form a short circuit therebetween and the non-conductive protuberance is disposed in a chamber located just above the first contact. The presence of a second contact forces the legs of the shunting contact to be compressed out of engagement with the first contacts, thereby creating an open circuit between the adjacent first contacts.

A method for solid phase welding gold to electrical contact terminals is disclosed. The contact zones of the terminals are moved past and held against a rotating cylinder that has gold electrolytically deposited thereon. The gold is transferred from the cylinder to the contact zones of the terminals by friction welding. The deposited gold is also described.

A connector for connecting cnductors of coaxially shielded cables to standard, non-coaxial male contacts disposed in a row including (a) a first inner contact compatible with each of the male contacts, and being electrically and mechanically connected to a first inner conductor of one of the coaxially shielded cables; (b) an electrically insulating element surrounding the first inner contact; (c) an outer rectangular contact surrounding the insulating element, and electrically and mechanically connected to an outer conductor of one of the coaxially shielded cables and fastened to the jacket of that cable; and (d) an auxiliary contact disposed among the male contacts and electrically connecting one or more of the outer contacts to one or more of the male contacts or to an external circuit.

The fully programmable DIN connectors constructed in accordance with the present invention have housing bodies comprised of a plurality of like cells that are each capable of receiving shorting clips and that, when shorting clips are selectively received therewithin, enable the same housing body to be programmed to satisfy the requirements of all possible applications. The shorting clips are preferably top loadable into the housing body, plural sockets are preferably bottom loadable therewithin and a top cover is attached to the fully programmable housing body.