Create my own cables

[Caspar]

Hello there.
Guys, girls, I need your help.
I want to create my own Y-cable and stereocable and I'm not sure of myself. Here's what I want to do;

*For the Y-cable I'm planning to use a microphonecable with 3 internal wires connected to a stereoplug and 2 microphonecables with two internal wires connected to 2 monoplugs. I'll solder the central internal wires together and teh specific.

*For the stereocable I want to use a microphonecable with 3 internal wires connected to 2 stereojacks.

Will this work?
Or am i doing something totally wrong?
Please help!

Groet,
Cas

[Ranman]

Re: Create my own cables

The directions vary slightly depending upon if the cables are shielded or not. A shielded cable will have a braded ground wire surrounding the lead wire(s) as shown below:


...while an un-shielded cable will have the ground wire running as a companion to the lead wire(s):


The trick is to identify what type of ground you have and what the leads are. In my illustrations I show a green lead, but in reality this is often white. At any rate, you just need to know what is ground, tip and ring. From that point it is all very easy.

The plugs are easily identified also, as follows:

Originally posted by Caspar
*For the Y-cable I'm planning to use a microphonecable with 3 internal wires connected to a stereoplug and 2 microphonecables with two internal wires connected to 2 monoplugs. I'll solder the central internal wires together and teh specific.

1) connect the ground wire from the 3-lead cable to the ground wires of BOTH 2-lead cables.
2) connect the TIP from the 3-lead cable to the TIP of one of the 2-lead cables.
3) connect the RING from the 3-lead cable to the TIP of the other 2-lead cable.
4) connect the ground of the 3-lead cable to the ground of the stereo plug
5) connect the TIP of the 3-lead cable to the TIP of the stereo plug
6) connect the RING of the 3-lead cable to the RING of the stero plug
7) connect the ground of one of the 2-lead cables to the ground of one of the mono plugs
8) connect the TIP of that 2-lead cable to the TIP of the same mono plug
9) repeat 7 & 8 for the other 2-lead cable & mono plug.

*For the stereocable I want to use a microphonecable with 3 internal wires connected to 2 stereojacks.

Simply follow steps 4, 5 & 6 for both ends of the 3-lead cable.

I hope I haven't confused you further.

[Caspar]

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Ranman! That's great!
You really helped me out there

In two and a half weeks I'm gonna start my project "build my own toms and stuff"
If all works out, I'll send my project-logbook to MPCman's site.

Thanks for all the help!

Groet,
Cas

PS, when making a snare....will the rimspund be tip or ring? Does anybody know?

[oldrocker]

Some old directions I posted before. Not as nice as the directions above but I like pre-molded cables in my triggers.
- - -

Splitter Cable: How to (about $7 each if you do it youself)
Even if you don't know which end of a soldering iron to grab,
this is easy, so you'll know someone who can whip this out for you.

So go to Radio Shack and buy
1) four 6' molded 1/4" phone jack to (whatever) Shielded Audio Cable
You'll cut of the 'whatever' anyway and Shack might not have 4 of the exact same thing
2) Two stereo 1/4" Phone Plugs (might come two to a pkg)
3) Take the 6' Audio Cables, leave the 1/4" Phone Plug end and cut off the other end
right at that end (you want as much of the 6' as you can get)
4) Strip the wires and PULL two of them thru each plastic cap before you start soldering
solder two 6' cables to each of the 1/4" stereo plugs
(shields together, one inner lead to the stereo tip, and the other to the 'below tip')
5) Screw the plastic caps back on ,and have fun.

[mikeportannoyme]

How much do you save by making your own cables?

[Ranman]

That depends. My soldering skills are pretty poor, so whatever I make I soon have to fix... and fix again... and fix again...

But I would imagine you could build the average cable for about 50% the cost of a manufactured one. For example: a 10' mono cable might cost $10 new, or about $3 for plugs and $2 for cable.

Just a guestimate... your mileage may vary. Some restrictions apply. Void where prohibited, prices subject to change, yadda, yadda, yadda...

[Ranman]

Originally posted by Albator
I'll say it again, there's something strangely familiar in that RanMan avatar...

See, THATs funny! There used to be a guy on here named Harloc that said the same thing. His avatar even resembled yours.

Yadda yadda yadda yadda
Yadda yadda yadda yadda
Ranman!

[Caspar]

saving money

Yes, it will save me about 50%. And I have fun making it myself

[mikeportannoyme]

I would think that the time spent would equal the extra $$ to buy it from a store, minus the ego boost of having done it yourself.

I guess I'm just a simple dude. But kudos to you DIY guys.

Keep rockin'

JP Phunktilicious

[Ranman]

True, there is a fine line between "Yeah, I made that!" (with pride) and "Yeah. I made that." (as a confession). With me it usually starts out as the former, but morphs into the latter.