8 wire litz braid instructions

[thp]

Could someone send my a link on how to do 8 wire litz braid?
And pictures would be nice too!

I wanna practice on some cat5.

4 wire is very hard for me, I don't know if I can handle 8, but I wanna try!

braiding wire + watching olympics = my weekend.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Good question, I'd like to know too!

 

[drewd]

I found this on the Internet a long time ago, but I don't quite remember where. It is a snippet of a guide on how to braid Litz wire. As I recall, most of it talked about a three-wire flat braid, but this bit covered four wires and it was the part that I saved.


Braiding a four strand interconnect works like this. LN is the left side negative lead. LP is the left side positive lead. RP is the right side positive lead. RN is the right side negative lead. The braiding sequence is as follows:

1. Pass RN over RP
2. Pass LN over LP and RN
3. Pass RP over LN
4. Pass LP over RP and RN
5. Pass LN over LP
6. Pass RN over LN and RP
7. Pass LP over RN
8. Pass RP over LP and LN

At the end of this braiding sequence, the strands are oriented exactly like they were at the start of your braiding sequence. The left negative, left positive, right positive and right negative are in the same position for connecting the braid to the exit RCA connector.

So you can see a braid “sequence” length depends on having the strands back in the same orientation as when the start of your braid. The more strands you braid the longer the braid distance will be between proper orientation. The other factor on braid distance between proper orientation points is how tightly you braid the wire. A loose braid increases the distance. A tight braid decreases the distance. A loose braid provides the best sound performance.

 

[primer]

I've heard about 8 braid but never found any instructions. Try http://www.chimeralabs.com/diy_braid.html for 4 wire braid with pics.

 

[The_Mac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by primer I've heard about 8 braid but never found any instructions. Try http://www.chimeralabs.com/diy_braid.html for 4 wire braid with pics.

a simple 8 strand braid can be done as follows:

take 8 strands, and lay them flat. They're numbered 1 to 8 from left to right.

Take 8, slip it through the 2-3 gap, and lay it in the 4-5 gap. Now the order is 1 2 3 4 8 5 6 7. Take 1, slip it between 5 and 6, then lay it between 4 and 8. now it looks like 2 3 4 1 8 5 6 7. re-number the strands to 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and repeat the instructions.

(in other words, take the outermost strand of one half, pull it through the middle of the opposite pack, and lay it at the innermost edge of it's original pack. Repeat on alternating packs). It should produce a round plait with a spiral pattern running the length.

 

[thp]

I think I've gotten used to 4 wires. When you do the 4 wire, do they usually come out flat? My cables come out soft of flat. I was expecting the final product to be round.

Also, on the simple 8 strand braid. I can't get it to come out at all! it's really hard for me to keep the cables together when doing it. I might have to get some helping hands to help hold the cables together.

 

[GWN]

This braid is called a square sinnet.

Arrange four wire left to right, clamp one end to a workbench or use locking pliers to secure one end.

Pass the left-most wire to the right OVER the TWO adjacent wires.
Pass the right-most wire to the left OVER the ONE adjacent wire.
Pass the left-most wire to the right UNDER the TWO adjacent wires.
Pass the right-most wire to the left UNDER the ONE adjacent wire.
Repeat all four steps making sure you keep even tension on the wires

Its fast and easy to do because you basically just need to remember to grab whatever cable is the left-most and right-most at the time.

The result is 3-dimensional with one pair of wires criss-crossing each other in a vertical plane while the other pair criss-cross in a horizontal plane. Very nice for power cords or interconnects because you end up with essentially a round cable instead of a flat braid.

 

[JHouser]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GWN Pass the left-most wire to the right OVER the TWO adjacent wires. Pass the right-most wire to the left OVER the ONE adjacent wire. Pass the left-most wire to the right UNDER the TWO adjacent wires. Pass the right-most wire to the left UNDER the ONE adjacent wire. Repeat all four steps making sure you keep even tension on the wires

Uh...Trying to imagine doing this with only 10 fingers.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Do we know if any of these suggested braids are good at rejecting EMI/RFI noise?

 

[thp]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

I finished up my 4-wire and 8-wire interconnects and they don't look to bad. Had a bit of a hard time fitting all 8 wires into the homegrownaudio rca's.

Anyone now where to get locking rca's like the homegrownaudio ones but you screw into instead of solder for a good price?