Unused pins

I admit this is an OCD question but it I'm curious. Should the unused locations in a connector be filled with unwired pins or left unfilled. Particularly, I'm building a encoder cable which uses a d'sub 15 and only 8 wires in the cable. I've seen commercial connectors with a full set of pins where I know all pins aren't used and some built with open spots. It probably doesn't matter but is there a preference?

Thanks

Ken

I suspect that the difference you're seeing is between a solder style D connector versus a crimp style connector. I personally prefer the solder style connectors, but I'd never bother to insert unconnected pins into a crimp style connector.

If you know the end user isn't going to always use the screws to hold the connectors together, filling the unused holes with pins means it will take more force to dislodge the cable inadvertently.

Two or more unused jumpered pins could also be used to verify that the plug is in place, for fault detection. Knowing that the plug is disconnected could distinguish between a plug failure and an encoder failure.

When I build a cable with crimp style connectors, I leave the unused positions empty to conserve components.

The other benefit is that you can often look at the end of the connector and guess what it's for (or not for) based on the pins that are present.