What are Centronics connectors?
This type of connector got its name from the Centronics Corporation, a manufacturer based in Nashua, New Hampshire. Back in the 1970's, Centronics made printers for use with computers. As computers and attached printers became more popular, the connector that they used became the de facto industry standard. The Centronics Corporation was purchased by Genicom (now TallyGenicom) in the 1980's, but their name lives on in this connector.The Centronics connector has a plastic bar in the center of the connector body that holds the contact pins. The body of the connector is often blue in color.
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The Centronics 36-pin connector is arranged in two rows of pins, each with 18 contacts. The connector is held in place by bail locks. The 36-pin connector is often used for parallel applications, especially for printers. It is also referred to as an IEEE-1284 Type B connector.
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6ft (1.8m) USB to C36 Parallel Printer Adapter Cable
#16898 | C2G
Connect your Parallel, IEEE-1284, printer to a USB port on your PC or hub
$16.99
6ft (1.8m) DB25 Male to Centronics 36 Male Parallel Printer Cable
#02798 | C2G
Connect your PC to a parallel dot-matrix printer, older laser printer or other uni-directional Centronics peripheral
$10.99
10ft (3m) DB25 Male to Centronics 36 Male Parallel Printer Cable
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#02799 | C2G
Connect your PC to a parallel dot-matrix printer, older laser printer or other uni-directional Centronics peripheral
The Centronics 50-pin connector is arranged in two rows of pins each with 25 contacts. This connector is held in place by bail locks. The Centronics 50 connector is most often used by older SCSI-1 devices (scanners, storage devices, etc.). A slight variant of the Centronics 50 connector is used in voice/data applications. This variant is commonly called a Telco connector.
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6ft (1.8m) DB25 M/F Serial RS232 Extension Cable
#02655 | C2G
Extend your RS-232 serial or parallel cable
$8.99
3ft (0.9m) DB25 M/F Serial RS232 Extension Cable
#02654 | C2G
Extend your RS-232 serial or parallel cable
$9.99