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Power Cable Interconnector (Ghetto all the way)

post #1 of 6
1/16/07 at 4:11pm
Thread Starter 
So a friend needed a interconnector, so he gave me his broken store bought one, and i get some jacks from that...

Tools:











Materials:





-------

First:
Prepare the cable on both ends...

After striping the cable, and the cables within, twist the exposed copper "fibers". Then heat the copper with a tinned iron and apply solder, quit a bit.

Use:
Solder
Soldering Iron
Helping Hands

1


2


Do this for both ends of the cable.

Second:

Mount the mini jack (witch i jacked from ghetto earphones) in to the helping hands.

3


Make sure theres some solder on the contacts too, and make sure its on there real good.
How? Heat (with the iron) the little solder patches and keep it there for a while, don't let the plastic melt.

Now that the jack is prepared, bring one end of the cable (which you have already "tinned") and solder it on to the jack.
You can solder it on any way you like, but make sure theres no bridge (like a short). (see below)

4


It looks messy, and it is, but i trust that it has good contact. Do this in any order you like, but you must use the same order for the other jack too.
Now do the other one the same way.


-----

This would be a good time to make sure there are no shorts (bridges). I used a multi meter (its VOM style one, so i used the ohm meter).










---- Now for some hot glueing-----



Fill every gap with hot glue.
Then with the hot tip of the gun, mold it in to any shape you want.






Ok...

Now pull out a ligher...


And get a bowl of cold (like sub 15C) water.
You will use it to cool the glue once it starts to melt.

Now just heat the glue so it smoothens out. If you feel that it got too hot dip it in the water, and its solid again...




Final step:
Get some metal polish, and polish the jacks...


Before:


After:


And your all done. Do a few tests, and checks, and your done.

(If you find any mistakes please report them)
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post #2 of 6
1/16/07 at 7:39pm
might look better with heat shrink tubes
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post #3 of 6
1/16/07 at 7:53pm
Nice pictures of the process, though I might've used a bit smaller cable and epoxy instead of hot glue (but that's just me).
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post #4 of 6
1/17/07 at 3:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mono View Post
Nice pictures of the process, though I might've used a bit smaller cable and epoxy instead of hot glue (but that's just me).
I think Epoxy is harder to work with... its too watery (viscous?). With hot glue its like a clay, and you can re shape it with heat.

And I'm SOO cheap that i might want those jacks back from that cable for something else...
Also the cable, well if i had something better, i would have used it, but thats what i got so thats what i used.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cantsleep View Post
might look better with heat shrink tubes
Not on top of the hot glue... because its so uneven. I could try though, if i wana go out and get some.
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post #5 of 6
1/17/07 at 3:19am
With epoxy I generally use one of three methods (depending on exactly what I'm trying to do).

- Multiple layers, get an initial layer in around all the finer details of the part (which might not work so well if a jack, pot, etc, you don't want any inside but I was also thinking of different uses, some not even audio), then let that layer set up and put another on top. This is more often for things not visible later.

- Filler, use a piece of plastic, like a cut off piece of a bic pen or whatever shape you want, slide that down around the area with some epoxy already there and fill in the end of the plastic piece. Extremely durable.

- Tape walls. A bit hard to describe but you make walls, an open-topped box around an area you want to pour the epoxy into. Made out of thick, clear packing tape with the sticky side facing inward against the epoxy (important that the epoxy only be in contact with the sticky part of the tape so it'll peel off later), then after the epoxy hardens the tape will peel off, leaving a (usually, depending on epoxy type) shiney surface. This method requires some practice, or if you're ok with filing the result into shape you can just slap the tape down without much care what shape it's in. Sometimes this is a bit harder, large or deep objects may have bubbles that rise and need popped, I recommend slow setting epoxy for this instead of fast setting I'd use for the former two methods.

I'm not really thinking about 1/8" headphone plugs, those can be had cheap enough from most electronics stores.
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post #6 of 6
1/17/07 at 3:29am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
I'm not really thinking about 1/8" headphone plugs, those can be had cheap enough from most electronics stores.
Not in finland...

But i see your point with the epoxy. i think the hot glue is pretty strong too (not as strong).

I might try making a mold (your third idea) but im not sure how its going to turn out.
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