Making my own cables (1 Viewer)

[Laszlo]

After reading this thread link I've got a little bit confused about what type of die and crimper toll to use.
Is anybody out there that had good experience using Belden cable and Canare conectors? What tools did you use? What stripper?
Somebody gave me the Ideal crimper to check it out for the weekend. I succesfully made some F to F cables with regular HD RG6 cable and Canare F conectors but the Ideal stripper didn't work very well.
I think is a no brainer if you are handy to do the cables yourself. Am I wrong? You won't save money but you get what you want.
Any suggestions? Anybody can guide me to the right tools?

Thanks a lot

Laszlo

 

[Brian Schucher]

I have had great success with the ideal stripper. I used the one sold as "two way" i think. It took some adjusting of the blades but it worked great. I also used the ideal crimnper with the canare connectors. I had to special order a die for the crimper to work on the center pins of the canare connectors though. I dont recall the part number though. If you do a search on AVS forum you might find the info there.

 

[Laszlo]

what die for the canare conectors on the Ideal crimper did you use?

Thanks

Laszlo

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Chris Whites website on A really Easy way to make your own cables is great.

Stripping: Order a Canare catalog. One of the pages tells you the exact measurements for stripping so they fit the Canare RCA plugs. You dont need the 'real' stripper by Canare as long as you take it slow and easy. Get a sharp retractable blade knife and perhaps one of those cheap wire-stripper tools for about $14 (the one with multiple holes for different size wires).

Cut some coax and try stripping. Plan to do 3 or 6 test strips until you get a feel for the technique. (The first one you do will be crappy - dont get discouraged.) Five or Six attempts later, you will be much better.

Hint: on your real coax - cut and strip all 6 ends BEFORE attaching any plugs. This way you can trim back all the wires if you make a mistake.

Hint: Try to cut all 3 component wires to the exact same length. In truth, an inch or so off does not really matter, but a foot or so does.

Go to the Belden web site: www.belden.com

Somewhere there is a "Connector Cross Reference" chart that tells you what Canare RCA plug works with what Belden Coax.

Hope this helps.

 

[Laszlo]

Thanks a lot for your tips. I read that website already but he refers to only Canare brand cables. So I guess the die for the crimper should me diferent too.
I thought there were other tricks like on a cheaper die. I think the Canare one is overpriced.
I'm going to make a little more research. I have a friend that he told me he had both dies on his hands: the Canare and the Ideal BUT for crimping Canare F conectors. He measured both dies with the calipers and they were exactly the same size. Now I need to look if the ones for the RCA's are the same.
Any better ideas are always welcome.
One more question, asuming that I get to do this cables are they gong to be good enough in the years were the HD Signal will be around? I meant really good quality cables or there will be something better then?

Thanks a lot

Laszlo

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I meant really good quality cables or there will be something better then?

Component Video format has been a standard since around 1940. And it is only becoming the standard cable type for HDTV - 60 years later.

Considering you are going a DIY route and will make your own cable for ~$30 why are you worried? It's not like this cable will be a major investment.

Ok, the "New" standard is DVI which is a short (below 10 ft) digital cable. This is NOT something you should try to build yourself. Dont worry about making this type of cable until you get at least 2 devices that provide DVI output and a television that offers more than 1 DVI input.