2 piece control panel detachable harness question

[emb]

Does anyone have any recommendations on a cheap and easy to assemble harness for connecting up two control panels?

I rested the control panel and admin panel on the cab to give a better description of what I am looking at.



The main goal is to be able to easily remove main control panel to do any maintenance.

I could see it being a pain if I hooked the admin button strip directly to ipac. It would be far more convenient  to instead disconnect a harness rather than unscrew each terminal.

[bkenobi]

Have you considered installing the Ipac in such a way that the only wire would be USB?  I see you have admin buttons above the CP, but those could be taken care of with a DB9 or RJ45 connector.

[Paul Olson]

If you plan on detaching it fairly often, cat5 would be a good choice. Otherwise, the suggested DB9 would work well. I find cat 5 to be a lot easier.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Looks like you need 7 conductors for the 6 admin buttons.  Rat shack has a 3x3 molex M/F with pins in stock usually. (in the US) It would be a pain for any more than occasional use but fine for maintenance use only.  I used cat 5 to handle more frequent swaps.  used a terminal block to transition to larger gauge wire suitable for attachment to the buttons. 

[bkenobi]

FWIW:  He asked about connectors.  RJ45 is the connector used for CAT5 cables.  CAT5 is the standard used for the wire used, not the connector.  If you want to install such a setup, it would be easiest to use CAT3/5/5e/6/etc (whatever you have or find cheapest) to wire up your controls and a RJ45 keystone. 

Best bet is probably to just use a cable you have sitting around and cut it in the middle.  Wire one side to the controls (assuming the admin buttons by the monitor) and the other to the keystone (cut the RJ45 off).  Wire the other end of the cable to the Ipac and plug it in to the keystone.  DONE!

[TopJimmyCooks]

FWIW Emb mentioned harnesses 2 times and connectors 0 times.  The cat 5 cable would be part of the harness.  Also, he knows that Cat 5 involves a plug and a jack as well as the cable.  If you're going to apply the subtle guiding influence of the force to correct me, please get your story straight first.  [finishes channeling Xiao2    sorry]

And also, Emb, the smallest 2 jack keystone modular setup requires you to spend about $10 either at the hardware store or online with shipping.  Hardware stores usually have a small single rj45 jack designed to screw to the wall which is about $2 and works great.  it has screw terminals inside so no punchdown is needed as with keystone systems.  BK is right about cutting a pre molded patch cable, don't get into terminating Cat5 to RJ45 yourself unless you already have the tools, no need to. 

[emb]

I have a cat 5 cable crimper. I think I will use cat5 cable and a coupler.

Thanks!

[TopJimmyCooks]

Pogo pins are out there too, but I priced them for an 8 conductor swap panel and it was going to be $50 minimum, I just couldn't justify it. 

Seems like many are succeeding with the rj45/cat cables.  Another reason to use patch cable - you get stranded wire rather than solid, more flexible/reliable when flexed.

[Vigo]

I have a cat 5 cable crimper. I think I will use cat5 cable and a coupler.

Thanks!

I have a crimper too, but gave up on crimping my own cat5 after spending hours trying to get the little wires to fit in the exact same order as the other end. You know any good methods for getting the wires in correct order for crimping? Maybe it's just that I have rumply cat5.  Not trying to derail...I just have a cat5 crimping handicap.

[TopJimmyCooks]

I get the wires cut about 3" too long, then sorted out in order by color, and then rub them over the edge of a table or desk or the back of a pair of scissors, then cut to the proper length per the gauge on the plug.  Fair warning, this is probably not the correct way to do it.  That gets them straight, or all curved in the same direction, and in a flat plane.  it is fiddly.  I've made probably 10 patch cords and punched stuff down over the years with no trouble, but with my arcade project I have cut up premolded patch cords for maximum reliability and ease (and color coordination, can't lie!). 

I once made 2 perfect straight through patch cables, then found out they had to have the middle two wires crossed over.