Main > Main Forum
Network cables for wiring
Franco B:
Nice looms 'Nap' ;D
If you want a versatile tool that crimps a wide range of open barrel terminals and doesn't cost £200 I can highly reccomend the [Hozan P-706] which will cost you about £40 delivered.
I use it for a wide range of terminals from JST, Tyco/AMP and Molex and it crimps them all beautifully.
Nephasth:
--- Quote from: Franco B on October 20, 2012, 04:25:01 pm ---Nice looms 'Nap' ;D
--- End quote ---
Thanks! ;)
You're wiring work is phenominal! Head and shoulders above mine...
TopJimmyCooks:
Just to clarify my previous post. I think solid wire with soldered connections is the way to go. I've used crimp terminals and they're ok-best for stranded, ok on solid, cat 5 wire is really too small/fragile. They are just made for specific gauges of wire. That's why I used terminal strips to transition.
I used stranded wire in places where repeated movement was expected. Molex is a good way to make connections that are made/broken for service but not everyday. Molex can be pricy. so, if you're not the "Napster" and don't have a back door key to Molex corp's underground prototype storage vault, that stuff can add up. Bottom line- if you can do what you need on 8 conductors, have some RJ45 plugging and unplugging to do, a la modular or swappable, look at patch cables. If you've got 20 conductors and need to break it for service or assembly- Molex is king. If I was wiring a straight up fixed panel arcade game, I'd leave the Cat 5 out and use single wire for everything, with a terminal strip or a molex plug for the cp top if needed.
boardjunkie:
For those wanting to make swappable panels, solder type DB25 connectors are a good way to go. I used them as part of a universal harness I devised so I could swap (pre JAMMA) boards in/out of the generic cabs I have. They are fast to assemble and reliable.
http://img.alibaba.com/img/pb/243/086/380/380086243_457.jpg
werdna:
I'm giving CAT5 and RJ45 a chance on my panel for the swappable area. Haven't used it long enough to know how it holds up.
I chose to solder the stranded wire to the microswitches. I couldn't see crimp connections working well with the small gauge wire.
I had attempted this back in 2008 and had what seemed like crosstalk problems. I didn't debug it very far back then but it seemed that things were wired fine however I got ghost button presses on the twisted pairs. This time I'm dedicating a pair to a microswitch. On my female RJ45 jack I just punch down one wire snaked through the connector and run that to the controller ground. If you are doing a lot of connections this probably won't save you much. For my 4-way, 8-way, flightstick, asteroids button panel, etc. I think it will work OK.