Pluggable Cable for multiple analog connections

Question

I have a device which comes in two parts; a microcontroller sits in one part; both parts have a matrix of wires; accordingly, I need to cycle power through several cables while reading the current/voltage output from several others.

As some of the wires sit in the part that does not contain a microcontroller, I need to be able to connect them in such a way that I can selectively cycle power to some of the wires and read the current/voltage output from several others; this cable must be pluggable (or at least easily assembled/disassembled) and support at least 15 independent connections.

I don't really have experience with EE; my first thought was to essentially "repurpose" a HDMI cable (since it has 19 pins), but I was told that you can't use it as an analog cable. If there's no reasonable way to do this as an analog connection, how would I go about using a digital connection?

Answer 1

In my experience, the 25-Pin DSUB cable works very well for this type of purpose. As you can tell from the name, it has 25 pins; 13 on the top side, and 12 on the bottom side, although for this purpose, cable orientation doesn't matter. The cable and female connectors are easy to come by and sell at a reasonable price. The female connectors are very simple to use, with all 25 pins sticking out the back (for ease of access, sometimes the bottom pins will protrude more than the top) and will most likely be panel-mount.

Here's an image of the DSUB and its layout: