Reply Posted by Chris Wood on December 26, 2001

Excellent job with the article mate. It's great that you've taken the time to put this up for us. And well done a successful project.

One question I have, though, is regarding the amount of outer-jacket you stripped back. Are using a big chunky strain relief to hold on to the jacket or is the cable-clamp holding onto the inner cores as it appears in your photos? I can't help but think that, while it makes assembly easier, if this were the case it would leave the cores a little more vulnerable to stress at the entrance to the connector?

Just a wonderance...
Chris Wood

Reply Posted by Kurt shetler on December 26, 2001

: One question I have, though, is regarding the amount of outer-jacket you stripped back. Are using a big chunky strain relief to hold on to the jacket or is the cable-clamp holding onto the inner cores as it appears in your photos?

I was worried about the same thing. It would have been very nice if I could have stripped back just enough of the thick outer jacket so that the cable clamp on the hood would clamp around the outer jacket when the hood and connector are mated.

Unfortunately, what I found is that the IJIS cable is very hard to work with in short lengths (<1"). The 90 pin Elco hood I used doesn't allow much clearance from the cable clamp to the first row of pins. So what I ended up doing is stripping back several inches of the outer jacket. This makes stripping and crimping the core wire much more feasable.

Right after I cut the snake I slid a 12" piece of heavy-duty heat shrink down towards the fan tail. My end solution will be to replace the outer jacket that I had stripped away (I kept it) once I had verified all my connections. I'm going to wrap the removed piece of outer jacket around the core wire, secure it with some electrical tape, and slide the heat shrink up over the assembly all they way into the hood.

The cable clamp will then have a heat shrink secured outer jacket to bite, protecting the inner core from wear and tear. The outer jacket will run all they way into the hood and should look very nice.
Again, a good photo would clear this up, but I am on holiday, away from my beloved hobby. :(

I chose not to heat shrink the connector until I've verified every single (+), (-), and ground connection from box end to fan tail. I'm sure I've screwed something up along they way and I'd hate to have to pull it apart to swap two pins!

I'm planning on adding a "Show and Tell - part II" as soon as I get back.

Thanks for the positive feedback!
Kurt

Reply Posted by Joules on December 27, 2001

Hi Kurt.

Here's a neat trick I use in such situations.

1 Strip about 2 to 3 inches of the outer jacket off and slide about 2 inch of adhesive lined heat shrink over the multicore

2 Find a way to grip that little bit of striped cable without damaging it. Usually a vice with some kind of protection.

3 Pull back on the outer jacket with moderate force sliding your hands for about 10 to 15 ft down the multicore. Do this 3 or 4 times, and you should have about 8 inch of exposed tails

4 Using some kind of clamping device, either a hose clip, or even a set of vise grips, clamp the outer jacket in place

5 Apply connector

6 When finished, release the clamp and pull the outer jacket back well into the connector shell. Then put the 2 inch of adhesive lined heat shrink where the strain relief will go, and apply heat.

7 Tighten those screws down well
You will now have an extremely strong connection to the outer jacket, and there will be approx 1 inch too much outer jacket on the cable. This will prevent the jacket from trying to creep out of the strain relief over time.

Good work on the tutorial though. No, Very good work.
If you think a pin under the fingernail is bad, I stuck a 5mm drill under mine (Sideways) two weeks ago, it went clean through to the other side. I guess that's what you get for making flight cases till the small hours. I felt quite sick.
I bet your next attempt at a multipin will be almost perfect.

All the best
Joules

Reply "**Blush**" Posted by Timothy J. Trace on December 25

Kurt, thanks for the props.

By the looks of things, you've done an excellent job!

One more little thing (they just keep coming and coming, don't they?)...I use a short little piece of shrinkwrap, I think 1/8" diameter by 1/4" length, over each white inner jacket right where it's cut back to expose the conductors and the drain. This holds the other end of the drain shrinkwrap in place, which in my eyes is important in preventing any possible contact between drains.

Oh, yes, that *was* a hard, ugly lesson I learned about the drains in an Elco connector. You bet I'll do anything to preempt a reoccurrence.

Merry Christmas!
Tim ==

Reply "Congrats." Posted by Matt Ruggeri on December 28

Nice Work Dude! I've built quite a few at the Company I worked for, but now I'm making them on my own at home! Nice Pics, Nice Job! you did everything properly, and neat. One suggestion (something that really has helped me) is to get 2 Vices, (panavise, or something equivalent) one to hold the cable in place, and another to hold the Elco while you insert the pins.

One other thing I do is to put a small piece of shrink tube over the + - and ground, after I shrink wrap the ground, this keeps the ground from backing out.

I like the 'Bic' Trick, i've honestly never seen that before, (kinda embarrasing after 30+ snakes!).

I'm one of those people that does everything in steps, all the stripping at once, then all the heatshrinking, then on to the crimping, etc... Oh, and I NEVER seal it all up until I test every connection!

Very nice work, and great pics as well. I've been wanting to put some of my Custom Snake pics as a tutorial/show-off on my website.

Reply "They are metal shells" Posted by Kurt Shetler on December

: Fantastic picture article. I vote for this to go in the study hall as well. I would add that one should use the metal shells and not the plastic ones for durability and shielding's sake. Also, the strain relief can be oriented either for side entry or top entry on the metal shells, depending on your needs.

The hoods I used are metal. I didn't see any hoods listed at Bi-Tronics that had rear exits. I'm not sure how the draw-tight screw would work in that situation. ??

: If this will be reformated for the study hall, you might want to include pin orientation diagrams for both the male and female connectors, as well as part numbers for the elcos, as there are all kinds of different variations to these connectors. I follow the whirlwind standard, though there are other standards out there as well. Excellent work!

Thanks! It was both fun and frustrating. I'd be happy to add pin diagrams or whatever else would be required to post to study hall.

Reply "Re: They are metal shells" Posted by Arthur on December 25, 2001

Actually, with what I saw in the picture you provided, you can orient the cable exit either way. You accomplish this by taking apart the metal shell itself (the 3 screws on the side), and changing the orientation of the strain relief to your liking. With the top cable exit, yes it will require a bit more "finger action" to rotate the draw-tight screw, but is useful in those few situations where you need to make it happen that way (like in a floorbox). 95% of the Elcos I have done are side entry strain relief configurations.

Reply "Now I get it." Posted by Kurt Shetler on December 25, 2001

I was trying to figure out why the hood had the removable strain relief. I thought it was to make cable assembly easier (which it does). I can see now that you could remove the strain relief piece, turn it 180 degrees, and now the cable will exit from one side of the rear.

See, that's why I come here. Somebody always has a good idea.

Thanks!
Kurt

Reply "But you did it the best way (IMHO)" Posted by Geri O on December 25, 2001

I've done Elco/EDACs both ways, down exit and side exit and I believe that the down exit is easier on the cable as it's hanging down. Good job, great pics!

Geri O