D connectors have been in use in military aircraft for a long time and the black boxes are swapped in and out like clockwork...In my experience D's very reliable...They came in 9, 15, 25, 37, and 50 pin configurations as I remember, and I seem to recall a 44 pin one, too...They were made by several manufacturers both in crimp and solder types...
I think some folks don't like them because they are intimidated when it comes to soldering them...Cheap consumer versions have plastic insulators that soften when the pins are heated and allow the pins to move or even fall out...I keep a matching set of high quality industrial D's for use as holders when I am soldering these connectors...The high quality connector is held in a small vise and the cheap mating connector is mated to it for soldering...This keeps the pins from moving around when heated...
Soldering them is really very easy...Dip the untinned, stripped end of the wire in liquid rosin flux, insert it into the pin socket and hold it there with your fingers...Holding the iron in the other hand, pick up a small amount of solder on the hot tip and touch it to the wire and pin at the joint...The solder will flow off the tip and into the joint with minimal heating and you are done...BTW, I always use spaghetti sleeves on them, especially if there is a bare shield wire in the mix...
Jerry wa2dkg
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