I've been ordering Samtec connectors for over six years. In that time I've approved wrong part numbers, ignored subtle plating codes, and tested components in ways that made experienced techs shake their heads. I've personally made (and documented) six significant ordering mistakes, totaling roughly $2,100 in wasted budget. This FAQ is the list I wish I had before I started. It covers the questions that show up in my inbox and search logs, answered in the simplest way I know.
Questions in this FAQ:
- What's the difference between Samtec TSW and Samtec Tiger Eye?
- Does Samtec actually care about small orders?
- What is "2660 flip"?
- Why does "De Soto KS" show up with Samtec searches?
- How to test a capacitor with a multimeter
- What part-number mistake do engineers make the most?
What's the difference between Samtec TSW and Samtec Tiger Eye?
TSW and Tiger Eye are different contact families, and mixing them up will ruin your day. TSW is Samtec's standard square-post terminal strip. It's a through-hole pin header with 0.025" square posts on a 0.100" pitch. It's basic, cheap, and mechanically solid—but the contact system is just a pin sliding into a socket.
Samtec Tiger Eye, on the other hand, is a socket contact system with a three-finger contact that wraps around the pin under spring pressure. That design gives better resistance to vibration, shock, and repeated insertion/removal. It's used in a lot of high-reliability designs because a loose connection is less likely to start as an intermittent failure.
It's tempting to say "a pin is a pin." That oversimplification got me in 2022. I replaced a damaged TSW with a generic header because the dimensions matched. The bench test passed. Then the vibration test exposed intermittent opens. I had to redo the whole prototype board. The original TSW would have been fine; the generic contact just didn't hold up under mechanical stress. Lesson: the contact system is a spec, not a luxury.
Does Samtec treat small orders like second-class citizens?
In my experience, no. My first Samtec order was around $300—a handful of TSW headers and Tiger Eye sockets for a prototype. They treated it with the same seriousness as later five-figure orders. That's not me being naïve; I've had vendors who clearly didn't want small work. Samtec never made me feel that way.
Part of it might be company culture. Samtec has been independent since 1976, and their "Sudden Service" slogan comes through in how they handle the "will you even talk to me?" stage of a project. I can't promise every distributor is the same, but the manufacturer's own sales team has been responsive on every small order I've sent.
Small orders are how testing, validation, and new projects start. Treating them like a nuisance is a good way to lose customers later. Today's $250 order can become next year's $25,000 production order. (I'm proof of that—I now spend more per year with Samtec than my first car cost.)
What is "2660 flip"?
I see this in my search logs a lot, and it confused me for a while. "2660 flip" is not a Samtec part number, as far as I've found. In most cases, people are searching for the TI TPS2660 eFuse and its FLIP pin. That pin sets the polarity of the fault output signal—basically whether the fault output is active high or active low when the eFuse trips.
Why does it show up next to Samtec? No idea. Probably because both parts appear in similar BOMs—connectors and power protection are often designed around the same time.
If you're looking for how to configure the FLIP pin on a TPS2660, check the TI datasheet. It's usually tied to a resistor or logic signal that tells the device what polarity your fault controller expects. (And if you're actually looking for a Samtec "flip" style product, the closest term is "dual-row" or "sandwich" connectors—but that's a different keyword.)
Why does "De Soto KS" come up with Samtec?
De Soto, Kansas is the location of a Samtec manufacturing facility. The city name shows up in shipping origins, supply chain discussions, and even some datasheets or corporate pages. I once had to check with a distributor to figure out why an order was taking longer than expected—turned out the warehouse system showed the source as "De Soto, KS" and I had assumed it was coming from somewhere on the East Coast.
(This was back in 2023, before I learned to pay attention to facility codes on order confirmations.)
If you see "De Soto KS" in a search, it usually means someone is trying to find Samtec's production site location, verify an address, or trace a shipment. It's not a product line. It's just a name on the label—and one worth knowing if you work with Samtec's supply chain.
How to test a capacitor with a multimeter
This is a classic question, partly because it has two answers depending on your multimeter. The proper way is to use capacitance mode. First, discharge the capacitor through a resistor or a purpose-built discharge tool. Then connect the multimeter leads, switch to the capacitance symbol (usually “–|(–”), and read the value.
If your meter doesn't have capacitance mode, you can make a rough check in resistance mode. Set the meter to a high ohm range, connect the probes, and watch the reading. A healthy capacitor charges slowly and the resistance rises. A shorted capacitor stays at zero. An open capacitor shows no movement at all.
One mistake I made: I tested a capacitor while it was still soldered into the circuit. The reading made no sense because the rest of the board was in parallel. Pull one leg out first. I saved maybe two minutes by leaving it in place, and I lost half a day. It's annoying, but it beats chasing phantom failures through five rework cycles. And honestly? That rough resistance test is fine for a quick field check. For component acceptance, use a real capacitance meter.
What part-number mistake do engineers make the most?
Assuming the part number is the whole story. I once ordered TSW-110-07-G-D and got something that looked wrong, because I ignored what the "G" meant. In Samtec's system, "G" means gold plating and "L" means tin. Same pin, same pitch, different contact finish. Gold gives you more insertion/withdrawal cycles and better corrosion resistance. Tin is cheaper and works fine in many benign environments.
That mistake wasn't necessarily in the part number I ordered—it was in assuming any "G vs L" change wouldn't affect my design. It did. The cost difference is one thing; the performance difference is another. I learned that a plating code is part of the spec, not a manufacturer's footnote. The Samtec website has a part number builder that spells out every code. Use it, especially for TSW and Tiger Eye series.
Better to spend ten minutes checking than to reorder components and explain to your production lead why the board doesn't meet the reliability requirement.