Multicore Cable

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Expanding slightly on Bazyle's point ...

There should be miles of pre-loved Centronics printer cables about.

MichaelG.

I might have some cy .75mm or 1mm in 4 core. How much do you need?

Regards.

David.

Neil

I suggested making up your own cables using expandable braided sleeving as a usable technique. I gave details of some cable I had made just to indicate the range of possibilities not intending to suggest that you needed anything so complex or robust.

Sleeving is available from about 3mm diameter (See RS 170-5419 for example). I also now see that braided copper sleeving is stocked so creating a screened multicore is much easier than when I made them by 'dismantling' donor coax to obtain the screen layer.

Ian P

Ethernet would be OK, I suppose - it's rated at 25W for POE, but I don't know the voltage. Might be OK for steppers, but a bit stiff for a handset. I have loads of RS232 cables, but they have very fine cross section.

I'm going to use XLR connectors for the steppers - chunky and easy to use in the dark and they lock positively without horrible little thumbscrews. But decent ones - the inside of the cheap socket on my existing unit pulled out with the plug! That took some fixing by the light of a faint red torch!

**LINK**

useful for small quantities of electronics bits, including some cable/wire

For Nema17 steppers with Pololu/Stepstick drivers at around 1A I use WIckes 0.2mm (1.4A per core rating) stranded alarm flex (12.49 for 30m) and pull out the cores I don't need, individual wires crimped with the appropriate pin (dupont, JST, etc) and inserted into a suitable plug.

For Nema 23 steppers with 2-5A drivers I use 0.5mm CY 2184Y 4 core flex (3A per core rating) available here for 0.48/m or £16.25 for 50m, also available in other cores/sizes and Chinese 'aviation' 4 core plugs and sockets from 'the bay' (thicker cable won't fit the cable grip on the plug).

0.75mm flex is rated to 6A per core.