Mini-DIN connector

The mini-DIN connectors are a family of multi-pin electrical connectors used in a variety of applications. Mini-DIN is similar to the larger, older DIN connector. Both are standards of the Deutsches Institut für Normung, the German standards body.

Standard connectors

Mini-DIN connectors are 9.5 mm in diameter and come in seven patterns, with the number of pins from three to nine. Each pattern is keyed in such a way that a plug with one pattern cannot be mated with any socket of another pattern. An important aspect of why each of these 7 mini-DIN connectors are official standards is because they are each drastically different from the other, with no simultaneously and directly overlapping similarities in (1) pin arrangement, (2) square key size and position, (3) circular shielding metal skirt notches & metallic additions - unlike the nonstandard mini-DIN connectors which may have directly overlapping characteristics to each other or to the standard mini-DIN connectors.

(The plug or male connectors shown, as visible when unplugged looking into the connector.)

The pin numbering for the plugs shown above is done left to right, bottom row to top row. Pin 1 will be on the lower left, and the highest pin number will be on the upper right.

WARNING. No references are cited for these pin arrangements. The mini-DIN 9-pin diagram is not the standard; the standard is nonuniform spacing on the first row and uniform spacing on the second. See, for example, a data sheet for mini-DIN 9 connector that shows a nonuniform spacing on the top row.

3-pin

• Apple LocalTalk Network
• VESA Stereo
• SGI StereoView (pinout diagram)
• Behringer Mixer Power Supplies
• Optoma EH1020 Projector
• TOPFIELD TF5400 PVR Combo Receiver

This 3-pin Mini-DIN connector must not be mixed up with a similar looking, but more rugged 3-pin DC power connector sometimes erroneously also referred to as "Mini-DIN" connector.

4-pin

4 pin mini-DIN for S-Video

• Apple Desktop Bus (Pinout diagram)
• S-Video (Pinout diagram)
• Thomson SpeedTouch 605 Console Serial Port / DSL Router (pinout diagram)
• Low voltage power supplies like the Seagate Pushbutton External Drive Power Supply

This 4-pin Mini-DIN connector must not be mixed up with a similar looking, but more rugged 4-pin DC power connector sometimes erroneously also referred to as "Mini-DIN" connector.

5-pin

• Low-voltage power supply input connector on various pieces of equipment
• SONY LANC camcorder control interface (Pinout diagram)
• 5-pin MIDI input and output connectors used by the Creative Technology Sound Blaster X-Fi and Audology 2 ZS front I/O panel, and the Creative LivedriveII (pinout diagram)
• Altec Lansing ACS 45 (2.1)
• Alliance Peripheral Systems, Inc. APS ProDAT Power supply input connector

6-pin

The color-coded PS/2 connection ports (purple for keyboards and green for mice)

• IBM PC compatible PS/2 keyboard/mouse connector
• Amateur radio TNC modem-radio interface
• Power supply DC output for some electronic devices
• Altec Lansing PC Speaker Connection to subwoofer
• Acorn Archimedes keyboard
• Blitz DVD screen for cars
• Klipsch 2.1 channel audio system (2 speakers/1 subwoofer)
• Leadtek and VisionTek GeForce2 Ti cards as TV-out
• Saitek x52 Flight stick to throttle connection
• Creative Cambridge SoundWorks Ps 2000 Digital Connection from woofer to main volume
• Auxiliary control output on some Ferrograph dot matrix LED displays (call centre wallboards)
• All Chatterbox headsets
• Kenwood TS-480 DATA port
• Yaesu FT-450 DATA port (view of rear panel, 6-pin DATA port on far left)
• Yaesu FT-817 DATA port
• Yaesu FT-857D DATA port
• Neopost SE4PC postal scale
• Mitsubishi Q series PLC RS232 port
• Dell MP series projectors RS232 port
• Radio Shack CCTV monitor P/N 49-2514 and CCTV camera/motion sensor P/N 49-2515 proprietary pin-out
• Commonly used on GPS mice to connect the device to an adapter cable with a USB or RS232 connector.
• Being an internal bus, there is no standard connector for I²C, but the 6-pin mini DIN is often used for I²C where external connections are required, such as in measurement and control equipment with a documented pinout.

7-pin

Example of the standard 7 pin mini-DIN connectors. These are from a Commodore 1531 datasette and its adapter.

• Commodore 16 and Plus/4 Datasette connector
• iRobot Roomba serial connector
• Altec Lansing ATP3
• XO Vision headrest screen
• Digital Equipment Corporation DECserver 90L/90L+/90TL/90M
• Märklin 610479 10 pin to 7 pin adapter cable
• a standard 8 pin DIN plug below can be fitted into a standard 7 pin socket
• ATI Radeon Video Card - HDTV Out

8-pin

• Sony VISCA Camera Control
• Apple Macintosh Serial Port
• Epson
  • Epson PX-8 and Epson PX-4 RS-232 and Serial port
  • Scanner TPU and automatic document feeder
• NEC Turbo Duo Controller Port
• Multimedia Extension Connector
• ATI Radeon 8-pin video connector.
• Legacy Roland serial port MIDI connectors (Mac/PC).
• Sanyo/Fischer Camcorder A/V out (older models)
• Mitsubishi FX series PLC RS422 port
• Shure SCM810 and FP410 automixers.
• Sun Microsystems
  • Serial Keyboard/Mouse connector (3/80 through UltraSPARC).
  • SPARCstation IPC & IPX Serial port.
  • SPARCstation IPC & IPX Audio In/Out port.
  • Sun Fire E25K Serial port.
• Directed Car Screens.
• SiriusConnect interface for Sirius satellite radios.
• Neptune Systems Aquacontroller serial and I/O port
• Kenwood TM-V71 - Radio to PC connector
• Yaesu
  • CAT (Computer aided transceiver) interface port
  • FT-450 TUNER port (view of rear panel, 8-pin TUNER port middle-left)
  • FT-817ND CAT/Linear port
  • FT-857D CAT/Linear port
  • FT-950 external tuner port
• Numark CDN25+G CD player remote
• Altec Lansing ADA885 left speaker connection
• Hewlett Packard ScanJet ADF (C5195)
• Idec PLC and HMI communication and programing ports
• Polycom VSX7000 series serial/VC control connector
• iSimple Gateway iPod/iPhone Interface Connectors
• Commodore 16 and Plus/4 joystick connector.
• Fuse electric violin by Evan Fourness

9-pin

WARNING. This mini-DIN 9-pin diagram is not the standard mini-DIN; the standard has nonuniform spacing on the first row and uniform spacing on the second. A data sheet for mini-DIN 9 connector shows this pattern.

These devices are the standard mini-DIN 9 because they have the non-uniform spacing on the top row:

• Magtek MICR Wedge Mini.

These devices are definitely NOT the standard mini-DIN 9 because they have non-uniform spacing on middle row:

• Logitech X-220 Speakers.
• Philips MC-D179 DVD Micro Theater

These devices may or may not be mini-DIN 9:

• Acorn Archimedes mouse
• Creative GigaWorks T40 (for Creative Docking Station X-30)
• Logitech Z-340 Speakers
• Logitech Z-3e Speakers
• Nvidia and ATI Technologies Video In Video Out (VIVO) port connector for GeForce and Radeon video cards
• Bus mouse
• Dension Gateway
• Vizualogic Car Screens
• Freebox HD (SCART to Mini-Din 9 plus 2 RCA : red and white)
• Kam, cetronic and numark dule CD DJ decks
• SCT XCAL2 Analog Inputs
• Harman/Kardon 395 3pc Speaker Set - Cable from subwoofer to the satellites for volume control

Non-standard connectors

Several non-standard sockets are designed to mate with standard mini-DIN plugs. These connectors provide extra conductors, and are used to save space by combining functions in one connector that would otherwise require two standard connectors.

Other non-standard connectors mate only with their matching connectors, and are mini-DIN connectors only in the sense of sharing the 9.5 mm plug body. These mini-DIN style plugs are not approved by the Deutsches Institut für Normung, the German standards body, and many applications could be considered proprietary.

(plug or male connector shown, as visible when unplugged; female sockets appear left-right reversed)

7-pin

Many laptops and video cards use a 7-pin video output jack compatible with a standard 4-pin mini-DIN plug. Pins 1-4 use the standard S-video pinout, enabling standard S-video cables to connect directly. A wider key prevents insertion of the matching plug into a standard 4-pin socket.

The use of the extra three pins varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but commonly includes a composite video output which is available using the manufacturer's proprietary adapter. Alternatively a YPbPr signal may be provided. Later Dell laptops provide an SPDIF audio signal. Some proprietary adapters bridge specific pins in order to enable the signal on other pins, or to specify the type of signal to be delivered.

The keying and pin arrangement prevents the use of the standard 7-pin mini-DIN plug, but even if a suitable plug can be obtained, use of non-proprietary adaptors on these ports may cause problems. Some graphics hardware, for example, is not engineered to have both the S-video and composite video outputs in use at once, and attempts to do this using non-standard adapters will produce poor results at best, and possibly damage the video output circuitry.

• Dell Inspiron/Latitude Video/Digital Audio Output
• Also used for ATI Radeon 7-pin
• SendStation PocketDock AV for Apple iPod (see this link)
• XFX (Nvidia) GeForce 8800GT Video Card TV-Out Port
• Apple PowerBook G3 Firewire (Setting Up Your PowerBook, page 7, reveals an included composite-to-S-video adapter cable, and page 20 shows the S-video output port)
• Apple PowerBook G4 15" & 17" (see this link)
• Apple Beige G3, input on the Wings personality card
• ATI Xclaim TV (some product information is provided here )
• GeForce Go7400 output used in some HP laptop computers
• Acer Aspire 9302WSMi
• Aspenhome iPod Dock
• Hauppauge WinTV
• Samsung X20 notebook
• DC power input on AST Premium Exec Laptops

8-pin

• Amstrad CPC6128 Plus Monitor
• SGI Personal IRIS 4D/30, 4D/35, Indigo, Indy, and Indigo2 Serial Port

8-pin (b)

• ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro 8-pin video-In connector

9-pin

• Alternate Video In Video Out (VIVO) port connector

Some versions of the VIVO port on some ATI and Nvidia GeForce video cards used a 9-pin connector without the small metal bar to determine how the plug fit into the socket (instead, the 3 indentions in the outer ring were used.) See this link (4-connector version) as well as this link (6-connector version) for pinout mapping, and here for the ATI Radeon VIVO port pinout mapping.

• 9-pin Apple GeoPort connector

The Apple GeoPort used a 9-pin jack compatible with either an 8-pin or a 9-pin mini-DIN plug, and was able to be used with devices designed for either the 8-pin mini-DIN Macintosh serial port connector, or the additional GeoPort protocols.

Apple pin numbering follows the 8-pin DIN assignments, for compatibility with earlier Macintosh serial ports using the standard 8-pin connector. The additional pin is numbered 9 by Apple, and corresponds to pin 5 of a 9-pin mini-DIN plug. It is used for a 5V 350mA power supply available to the peripheral. Pins 5-8 of the GeoPort socket and the mini-DIN-8 plugs used with it then correspond to pins 6-9 respectively of the standard mini-DIN-9 plug.

• This connector is close enough in specification to an Altec Lansing right speaker connection to be replaced with this connector plug.

9-pin (b)

 ?

• Sega Mega Drive II / 32X - This is larger than a standard mini-DIN 9.

• Hypercom T7 Eftpos terminal
• Nvidia GeForce S-Video 9 pin to YPbPr (YCbCr)
• Sigma EM8300 Video Card
• Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500 Digital
• Speed-link Medusa Amplifier
• Creative Inspire T7700 Speakers - Wired control unit connector.
• Creative X-fi elite pro unit - Cable to connect to the speakers for control.
• Creative Speaker mini din 9p pinout
• Philips A5.600 Seismic Power 600 - Center speaker controller unit and 5.1 audio connector.
• Harman/Kardon 395 3pc Speaker Set - Cable from subwoofer to the satellites for volume control.
• Various Sharp multimedia projectors RS-232C (DIN9B TO DB9 supplied with the projector)
• Acoustic Energy Aegos P5 surround decoder to amplifier
• Visioneer Strobe XP 200 dual power/USB type-A male "Y-cable" adapter

10-pin

• Sega Saturn (shows pinouts)
• HANNspree monitors and televisions

10-pin (b)

• ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro (shows pinouts) (Video Out)
• Matrox G450 eTV S-Video/Composite (shows pinouts)
• Amino AmiNET STB series (shows pinout)
• Märklin 60652 Mobile Station
• Märklin 610479 10 pin to 7 pin adapter cable

Other non-standard connectors

• JVC Mini-DIN 8
• Allen-Bradley Micrologix PLC Mini-DIN 8
• Beyerdynamic microphone connector
• Some 3-pin and 4-pin DC power connectors look similar enough to Mini-DIN connectors to be erroneously referred to as "Mini-DIN" connectors sometimes.

See also

• DIN connector
• DC connector
• S-Video