Crimping and using TE AMP SuperSeal 1.5 connectors

Recently, I bought some additional high beam lights from LazerLamps for our truck. For this I had to create and extend a couple of connectors. TE AMP SuperSeal 1.5 connectors, as it turned out. This article serves as an aide-mémoire to me when I have to use and order these connectors in the future. And it might be of no particular interest to you at all. So, feel free and skip reading …

First, these connectors do not have a typical male/female plug/socket arrangement. Instead, they use

  • “male” plug housing with “female” receptable contacts
  • “female” cap housing with “male” pins or contacts (called tab contacts)

The SuperSeal 1.5 connector becomes water tight (IP67) by using wire seals that have to be used on every single wire and are crimped to the contacts. So, the contacts have two crimp points:

  1. Outer crimp
    for attaching the wire seal and the insulation of the wire insulation which also serves as a bend protection
  2. Inner crimp
    for crimping the uninsulated wire to the contact – and this uninsulated part is rather short: only 4mm.
    This is suprising as the connectors are still rated for 14A.

Note: The wire seals come in different diameters and colours with “yellow” the most common size (especially when buying no-name clones).

For the correct way of crimping these connectors, I could reuse my existing Knipex Crimp System Plier (97 43 200) and just add the matching crimping dies 97 49 28 along with the wire feed stopper 97 49 28 1. The latter greatly helps to have the right insertion depth when crimping, as one cannot really see anything due to the wire seal attached to the cable.

After crimping the contacts have to be inserted into the housing. And there is only one correct and possible direction which fits. Audible and tactile feedback is given with correct insertion.

Both housings have locks (usually in red) that must be open for insertion and extraction and locked for use. Gettings these locks unlocked is quite tricky and a specialised tool is highly recommended – especially for the cap housing. The same for the actual extraction of the contacts themselves. I found it easy to destroy the contact, housing or screwdriver when not done carefully or properly.

There is a good video (in german) that shows how to use the pliers and assemble the connectors:

Here is a summary of most of the parts along with their contact sizes.

Cross Section mm2Plug Housing
w/ Receptable Contacts
Cap Housing
w/ Tab Contacts
Wire Seals
0.35 .. 0.50282403-1282404-1281934-4
(1.2 .. 1.6mm)
green
0.75 .. 1.50282110-1282109-1281934-2
(1.7 .. 2.4mm)
yellow
1.50 .. 2.50282466-1282465-1281934-3
(2.5 .. 3.3mm)
red
Extraction / Insertion Tools9-1579007-19-1579007-1
Positions
Number of Contacts / Pins
Extraction / Insertion Tools
1282079-2282103-12452133-1
785061-1
2282080-1282104-12452133-1
785061-1
3282087-1282105-12452133-1
785061-2
4282088-1282106-12452133-1
785061-2
5282089-1282107-12452133-1
785061-2
6282090-1282108-12452133-1
785061-2
TE AMP SuperSeal 1.5 contact part numbers (w/o gold contacts)

There are some additional parts that might be of interest as well:

Example

A complete 3-pin socket/plug for 1.5mm2 thus consists of the following part numbers:

Here is a copy of the official data sheet from TE:

Note: I first bought a cheap SuperSeal no-name clone for testing the crimping pliers before I tried with the originals. Saved me quite some money …

So, this is it for today. Hope you find this useful. It surely helped me.

Building a Neutrik powerCON True1 TOP distribution from a LeGrand Plexo junction box

Recently, when I converted most of my electrical sockets and connectors to Neutrik powerCON True1 TOP, I was looking for a Neutrik power distribution. After some failed tests to build a box myself from an junction box, I found a product called Mini Brick from an italian company called Valentini which was sold via Distribution Zone in the UK for a retail price of 145 GBP (174 GBP incl VAT).

Neutrik Mini Brick, image copyright Valentini, https://www.powerboxsyntax.com/
Neutrik Mini Brick, image copyright Valentini, https://www.powerboxsyntax.com/

The box is essentially a 6-way (and not 7-way as shown above) power distribution rated up to 3500W (nearly 16A @ 230V) and has a red status light to indicate if it has power.

Build quality is very good (metal or hard plastic case, rubber coated); and the price is also understandable, as the chassis connectors alone would cost around 60 GBP. However, I was not totally happy with it due to is relatively massive form factor: L80mm x W75mm x H300 mm plus connectors.

So, I had to go back to the drawing board. And I found a junction box from LeGrand, a french manufacturer, without any membranes or cutouts with these dimensions: 105mm x 105mm x 55mm (and an IP 55 rating). In this box I should be able to install one Neutrik NAC3PX duplex connector and four Neutrik NAC3FPX-TOP (female) connectors.

To cut the holes for the chassis connectors into the case, I used a Hilti 30mm hole saw with my Wabeco drill stand. Drilling the duplex chassis connector obviously needed 2 holes and a cutting away some excess plastic (later on I found out that a 25mm diameter is better suited for the smaller part of the duplex connector):

Opening for the Neutrik NAC3PX-TOP duplex chassis connector
Opening for the Neutrik NAC3PX-TOP duplex chassis connector

Note: one might be even able to use 29mm and 24mm holes, see the detailed drawing – maybe I try this next time.

To mount the chassis connectors onto the box, I used M3 screws and hex nuts (I could not find TX versions) which I drill with a 3mm Hilti HSS-Cobalt drill (yes, overkill – but the only drill I had at hand). Unfortunately, the screws were a slightly too short, so it was a little bit of fiddling to get the hex nuts onto to the screws.

Neutrik NAC3FPX-TOP front view, drawing copyright Neutrik, https://www.neutrik.com/en/product/nac3fpx-top
Neutrik NAC3FPX-TOP front view, drawing copyright Neutrik, https://www.neutrik.com/en/product/nac3fpx-top

After all the Neutrik connectors were installed, I wired them to a 5-way Wago 221 COMPACT series splicing connector (221-415) with fully insulated blade receptable connectors (1.5mm2, 0.8mm, 6.35mm) to the socket and with 1.5mm2 ferrules to the clamp.

Here a quick list of tools I used:

Tools used for the build
Tools used for the build

After assembly I did a final connectivity test to ensure all wires (L, N, PE) were correctly connected. As the duplex connector has a different wiring layout, it is easy to mix things up (PE is in the middle and not at the side).

5-way Neutrik powerCON True1 TOP distribution in a LeGrand Plexo junction box
5-way Neutrik powerCON True1 TOP distribution in a LeGrand Plexo junction box

The end result is not as sturdy as the Mini Brick, but much lighter and smaller. And if I ignore the amount of labour I put into the build, this box is certainly much cheaper.

Video: 5-way Neutrik powerCON True1 TOP distribution box made from LeGrand Plexo

And as usual: electrical installations can be dangerous – only have them performed by qualified personnel.