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Main => Lightguns => Topic started by: Flinkly on May 26, 2006, 11:53:42 am

Title: What is...Arcade Lightgun Cord Material?
Post by: Flinkly on May 26, 2006, 11:53:42 am

hey guys,

i was wondering if any of you had any idea about what the cord material is for arcade lightguns.  I have a few and you can undo 3 screws per mount in order to remove the hose/cord part of the gun.  it's a bendable metal hose usually coated in a rubber material to cut down on pinch hazards or seomthing.  I was thinking it might be a hydraulic line in real life or something, but i'm not really experienced with industrial hydraulic lines.

anyway, if anyone has heard or knows what the real world material is for lightgun cords, i'd love to know.  thanks guys, and let me know if any pictures or other information is needed for identification.

Title: Re: What is...Arcade Lightgun Cord Material?
Post by: Circo on May 27, 2006, 12:08:50 am

I am not sure of the wiring config but I believe the metal outside is strictly to protect the wiring.

Title: Re: What is...Arcade Lightgun Cord Material?
Post by: Crowquill on May 27, 2006, 09:21:26 pm

I've always just assumed that it's some type of metal conduit similar to what is used for commercial electrical work. Obviously it's pretty flexible though. It's very similar to what is used for payphone cables. Here's a bit of info on this:

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Armored%20cable

Title: Re: What is...Arcade Lightgun Cord Material?
Post by: MonMotha on May 27, 2006, 09:47:07 pm

Check out page 765 of the McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com) catalog under Ultra-Flex Flexible Metal Conduit.  That stuff has an extremely small bend radius and is available in sizes typical of those used for arcade light gun tethers.   You'll want the stainless steel kind, and even then you may have to polish it up a bit for the typical "showroom shine" seen on arcades.  Stainless metal polish should work fine.

Title: Re: What is...Arcade Lightgun Cord Material?
Post by: Flinkly on May 28, 2006, 03:58:08 pm

yeah, after spending some time at work looking at materials, it seems to be an electrical conduit.  mcmaster seemed to have the best selection, but they only had that one that might work, but it still doesn't look like it would bend enough.  i was going to send one of my crappier cords down to maintenance to see what they thought, but that'll have to wait for tuesday.

thanks for the preliminary info guys, i hope to nail this one down to a specific product though, for us lightgun hackers.