How to make an interconnect Step by Step With Pics
Apr 24, 2013 at 10:23 AM Post #1,007 of 1,012
Wow, this thread started almost a decade and 1000 posts ago!
 
To review: An analog unbalanced interconnect has four important factors.
 
1] Robust connectors that will have repeated good contacts.
2] Very low end to end resistance of the shield/return conductor.
then
3] Good shielding.  In a world that has more and more interference, this is increasing in importance.
finally
4] Low capacitance, this is not about the cable but about components that are not designed to deal witc capacitive loads.
 
Jun 14, 2013 at 11:28 AM Post #1,009 of 1,012
I am about to build a guitar patch cable.  I've got plenty of experience with cables but had one particular question.  It uses a 1/4" TS connector (I'm using Neutrik connectors on Canare GS6 cable) and will naturally see pretty hard use compared to my hi-fi cables.  I'm debating whether to apply heatshrink or not and I see 3 options:
 
1) Apply no heatshrink (keeps everything easy to repair if I ever need to fix something)
2) Apply heatshrink over cable and barrel of connector(most rugged but need to do more work to repair it if ever required)
3) Apply heatshrink on cable but inside the the barrel of the connector.  (Looks kinda ugly IMO but may be best balance of access and ruggedness)
 
Oct 15, 2013 at 4:12 PM Post #1,010 of 1,012
Would making an interconnect like this be applicable for headphones? I'm going to buy an HD25 soon and would like to make a 3.5mm to Senn Proprietary connector
 
Jul 30, 2016 at 4:32 PM Post #1,012 of 1,012
  I am about to build a guitar patch cable.  I've got plenty of experience with cables but had one particular question.  It uses a 1/4" TS connector (I'm using Neutrik connectors on Canare GS6 cable) and will naturally see pretty hard use compared to my hi-fi cables.  I'm debating whether to apply heatshrink or not and I see 3 options:
 
1) Apply no heatshrink (keeps everything easy to repair if I ever need to fix something)
2) Apply heatshrink over cable and barrel of connector(most rugged but need to do more work to repair it if ever required)
3) Apply heatshrink on cable but inside the the barrel of the connector.  (Looks kinda ugly IMO but may be best balance of access and ruggedness)

Using that cable and those connectors you should not need heat shrink tubing at all. The Neutrik connectors grip the cable well and you should never have issues. That cable and those connectors will withstand hard usage.
That being said, what you need to watch out for are high resistance shorts. Too much heat transferred to that particular cable when soldering can be an issue. Every time I have new people working with such cable I get shorts of 20k ohms to 90k ohms roughly. If you get something like say 700k when reading resistance on a DMM that should be fine but infinite is even better. The cable will generally work but you will have lowered output if you add resistance to that cable.  If you build one and get resistance, cut off about two inches of cable and start again, you can even measure one end when soldered, tip to sleeve then the second end and determine which end has an issue. If you need more help pm me. 
 

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