Neutrik’s Halo Series offers a forward-thinking alternative to light pipes, with improved visibility and easier design integration. By using a clear outer surface on their chassis-mount connectors, with the product designer integrating their own lighting and control systems, Neutrik’s patented ‘halo’ light ring allows end users to easily locate connectors and immediately see which ports are inputs or outputs. Additional connection status events such as bad connections or phantom power can also be made visible through clever design, providing a better user experience. These visualisations are made using one or two SMD LEDs (provided by the designer) to the left and right of the connector on the circuit board.
These connectors use industry-standard mounting holes and are designed for horizontal PCB mounting with chassis thicknesses of up to 3 mm. The large, asymmetrical non-metallic latch saves vertical space between connectors while remaining easy to operate. Its matte finish also eliminates disturbing light reflections when compared to metal tabs. The plastic housing minimises cost, but reliability is ensured with steel in all the right places. These connectors are made from compound materials for improved ESD performance.
Neutrik’s Halo Series connectors are available in male and female 3- and 5-pin XLR variants, each using the smallest XLR receptacles for the highest packing density. An additional RJ45 (ethernet) version of this connector is available for pro-audio, video, and lightning network applications, though Neutrik makes it clear on their website that this does not intermate with their CAT6 cable connector NE8MC6-MO and NKE6S cables.
A live demonstration of this technology can be found in the video below from Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2023.
If you have a commercial project where easy location of a connector would greatly enhance the user experience, fill out the form below to apply for a sample.
(All images sourced from Neutrik)
