Anyone ever shorten their scale cables?

RaisedByWolves

RaisedByWolves

Mangler of grammar, off my meds.
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Got my slim scales yesterday from aliexpress, delivered just over one week from date of order.

Anyone have any experience in shortening the cables?

I’m pretty good with soldering and I dabble in electronics a bit so I’m pretty sure this is possible, just wondering if there are any pitfalls to be aware of.

I would be working on the plug end, not the reader end.
 
should be easy. I probably would use crimp style amp db9 connectors over soldering. But if you have an insert tool, soldering works.
 
Amazon has the screw terminal type.

A bit more money but real easy.

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I don't foresee any problems shortening them as long as you match up the conductors
 
I shortened my cables, everything worked out fine.
Theoretically you could unsolder and resolder the current connector, but i would recommend buying fresh connectors.
I bought mine off amazon and was able to re-use the original outside housing.
With new, you can compare the pin locations of the colored wire a lot easier.
Probably a good idea to put thin heat shrink tubing over the soldered pins, that is how mine were originally.
Practice, cutting the aluminum wire shield up the line a little way before going to your final dimensions.
I tried first with a hack saw, but eventually moved to the metal cutting bandsaw. Go slow, hold it down to the table and obviously don't catch the internal wires.
There was enough flex, that i was able to cut the housing and pull it back on the far side to get the wire length i needed.
 
Sounds like as good of an excuse as any to get a circular crimper and pin installers/removers and do the job without a splice. Pay attention to grounding if the cable has a shield or drain wire, ground at the DRO unit an not at the read head for noise suppression. I have a DMC cannon plug tool kit that's worth its weight in gold to me. I have seen the import knockoffs of Doetsch crimp and pin kits that look like they might do the job reasonably well for a fraction of the price of the Daniels kit. You'll be surprised at how much use you'll get out of the tools.
 
pontiac428 said:
Sounds like as good of an excuse as any to get a circular crimper and pin installers/removers and do the job without a splice. Pay attention to grounding if the cable has a shield or drain wire, ground at the DRO unit an not at the read head for noise suppression. I have a DMC cannon plug tool kit that's worth its weight in gold to me. I have seen the import knockoffs of Doetsch crimp and pin kits that look like they might do the job reasonably well for a fraction of the price of the Daniels kit. You'll be surprised at how much use you'll get out of the tools.
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Wouldn't think of splicing. I repaired and fabricated our test probes for a few years soldering the leads into 9 to 27 pin Amphenol plugs so I would go right to the pins with the shortened lead.

Good tip on the ground wire, thanks.
 
They make use of DB9 connectors because they are cheap, have lapsed patents, and come in a number of formats from solder cup to quicky ribbon punch-thru jobbers.

I think 10 years ago, I would have said to solder everything, all the time. Now, I'm not so sure, crimps have so much going for them and don't break at the solder joints from movement and vibration. There is one thing to watch out for when soldering those connectors- the pin order reverses when you change the "gender" (oh jeez) of the connectors, so check twice, solder once.
 
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