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DIY UE cables?

post #1 of 17
2/6/10 at 12:18am
Thread Starter 
Hi

Have been going into DIY recently, and I had this thought of making DIY UE cables. I'm sure most of you know that UE wires are detachable and can be replaced with cables with similar-sized pin connectors.

Does anyone know where I can get good quality yet thin and portable wires? And more importantly, does anyone have any idea or suggestions on how to make/source the plastic between the wires and the pin connectors?

Secondly, how do you make/source the pins so they fit snugly into the drivers?

Been looking around the forum and I dont see any threads related to this, so I decided to start the discussion for UE owners. If there are previous threads related to this, do direct me there : )

Cheers
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post #2 of 17
2/6/10 at 12:25am
I saw one time a guy found some pins on ebay or something and soldered the wire directly to it, then he heat shrinked each pin then heat shrinked them together and it gave it enough separation room I guess.
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post #3 of 17
2/6/10 at 12:40am
Thread Starter 
Any link you can direct me to? Thanks
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post #4 of 17
2/6/10 at 12:52am
There is a website with instructions for DIY UE cables out there somewhere. It says to use d-sub pins, which I now have about 192 of still in the bags. UE pins are not d-sub pins. I bought some machined pins that I ground down to the correct diameter but I just wasn't happy with the finished cables. I ended up tearing up some replacement cables for the pin connectors. I used some 22awg teflon wire from here. 50 feet 22 AWG Silver Teflon Wire Violet 19 strands - eBay Teflon wire is pretty microphonic so not the best for purely portable use. Someone else here mentioned a company called coonerwire that makes silicone insulated wire that I'd like to try in the future. It was a bit of a pain, but I am really happy with the results. Have fun.
LL
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post #5 of 17
2/9/10 at 12:21am
germania recommended using gold plated 22awg head pins(for jewelry).
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post #6 of 17
2/10/10 at 6:20am
Just finished DIY my UE cable,i managed find the perfect (snug) fitting pins, using connector pins salvaged from an old PC monitor cable.Extracting those pins from the connector is real pain though.I've tried improvising with pins from PC card, HDD etc,but its really hard to grind down to the required diameter with such tight tolerance and they dont fit very well at all.
Alternatively, try lookup for 22awg connectors pin from your local electronic parts supplier like Farnell,RS etc.

Anyway,here's my finished product



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post #7 of 17
2/11/10 at 9:01am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Razr View Post
Just finished DIY my UE cable,i managed find the perfect (snug) fitting pins, using connector pins salvaged from an old PC monitor cable.Extracting those pins from the connector is real pain though.I've tried improvising with pins from PC card, HDD etc,but its really hard to grind down to the required diameter with such tight tolerance and they dont fit very well at all.
Alternatively, try lookup for 22awg connectors pin from your local electronic parts supplier like Farnell,RS etc.

Anyway,here's my finished product



? Cant see any pics. Anyway exactly what "old PC monitor cable" were you talking about? Are those the HDMI ones?
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post #8 of 17
2/13/10 at 11:39am
Not HDMI,I was referring to VGA cable...

Cant see..Did u click on the thumbnails?? it should pop up a fullsize pix on a new window!!
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post #9 of 17
2/14/10 at 11:35am
Thread Starter 
Yup I can see 'em now... so VGA pins are the secret! Ill try them soon..
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post #10 of 17
2/18/10 at 4:59am
Hey thepredestrian,im having problem replying to your PM (your inbox quota's full).

I'll just post it up here,ok!Fyi the pins are soldered on to the wires prior to wrapping with heat shrink (HS) tubes. Basically the housing mainly consist of different diameters of HS tubing (as depicted in the prev post.. 1,3 and 5mm).
Anyway, what i did was wrapped 2 layers of 1mm HS on each of the pins,then place a 2mm solder wire as memory wire and bond them with a 3mm size tube. Finish it off with a (Blue) 5mm tubing to create a streamlined connection between the wire and the IEM.

The wires are made of single core 0.5mm High Purity Silver Wire+teflon piping.Word of advice, single core+teflon piping creates a fairly microphonic and stiff cable...not the best option but i just worked with whatever i had on hand.You'd be better off with multistrand silver or high quality OFC wires with cotton sleeves etc!!

Im gonna do another set of cable with multistrand OFC wires as i find the teflon+single core combo not very portable!!

Ok.. hope that helps,good luck with te DIY!
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post #11 of 17
2/18/10 at 5:11am
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post #12 of 17
2/18/10 at 5:40am
Wow, nice work! Pardon my ignorance, are those silver wires came insulated or did u shrinked them up?I noticed another clear tubing over the twisted wires (double HS tubing??)Care to shed some lights.......
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post #13 of 17
2/18/10 at 5:52am
t
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post #14 of 17
2/18/10 at 7:12am
Thread Starter 
Ok cleared my inbox. How'd you get the wooden jack and the split? I cant find it locally
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post #15 of 17
2/18/10 at 7:20am
Thread Starter 
@teds_headfood: on top of the wooden jack and Y split, where can you get the transparent HS (from the split to the jack) and the plastic memory youre using?
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