Connector color code

Updated June 17, 2009

2.92 mm to 2.4 mm adapter

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New for January 2009! This material was posted at the suggestion of John, who is submitting it to the IEEE and hopes it will become a new standard. A color code will improve the efficiency of any lab operation, and allow inspection and verification of cable types after installation. How come no one ever thought of this before?

Just because connectors can mechanically mate together doesn't mean they have the same frequency capabilities. One example that everyone is familiar with is when a 2.92 mm cable is mated to a cable with an SMA connector. Even though the 2.92 mm connector can handle 40 GHz, the resulting cascaded cable is going to have some suspicious behavior above 18 GHz, but once the cables are mated together, it is nearly impossible to troubleshoot the problem without taking the cables apart. In the future when the cables are color-coded, this situation will stand out like a sore thumb!

Here's a couple of documents on the color code for you to download, these were presented at an IEEE meeting in June.

Excel sheet on color code

Powerpoint on the color code

Below is the proposed color code. We'll post updates on John's progress as he tries to get the IEEE to adopt it.