[SOLVED] Building Mic Cables

ecc83 said:
Pity the OP bought single screened cable for unbalanced gear.
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Not sure what you mean...I bought balanced mic cable. Mogami W2549 cable

I have a 244 which only takes unbalanced, so I had to buy a few ft of unbalanced cable for that. I have a lo-hi z transformer I use for it normally, but it doesn't always sound best for whatever reason, so I want a few cables.
 
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Quick question: in this video he tins the ends of the copper, then cuts them off. Why tin them only to cut them off?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRvkd9XBbpc

Also, he fills the cups with solder, and then inserts the copper into the cup. Is the solder hot enough that you can just insert it like that?
 
4tracker said:
Quick question: in this video he tins the ends of the copper, then cuts them off. Why tin them only to cut them off?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRvkd9XBbpc

Also, he fills the cups with solder, and then inserts the copper into the cup. Is the solder hot enough that you can just insert it like that?
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He tins the wire then trims it to length. He is not cutting off the whole tinned portion.

He fills the cup and reheats it as he is putting the wire in. Both the solder on the wire and the cup melt into themselves.
 
RFR said:
He tins the wire then trims it to length. He is not cutting off the whole tinned portion.

He fills the cup and reheats it as he is putting the wire in. Both the solder on the wire and the cup melt into themselves.
Click to expand...

Great, thanks. Makes sense now.
 
Er, no. I would normally trim my copper ends to the right length then tin them. I'd only do another trim if one of the strands has ended up longer than the others or something but that's rare.

The other thing I'd say is that this video gives a distorted view of the way most mere mortals work. His soldering iron is mounted rigidly and he's moving the connector around. Usually in a normal environment you have to mount the connector (hence my hint about having a mating XLR to hold it steady) then moving the soldering iron, wires and solder. Filling the cup with solder would certainly let it get too cold/hard before you insert the copper without more application of the iron. I tend to insert the copper, use the iron to heat cup and copper together then flow the solder in neatly. It's easier to do than describe.
 
That is a pretty neat setup he has. I'll bet he does a LOT of cabling.

Even for us "mortals", one could rig up a setup like that just using some 2x4 scraps. Having the soldering iron steady and stable sure frees up your 2 hands, which never seems to be enough.
 
4tracker said:
Not sure what you mean...I bought balanced mic cable. Mogami W2549 cable

I have a 244 which only takes unbalanced, so I had to buy a few ft of unbalanced cable for that. I have a lo-hi z transformer I use for it normally, but it doesn't always sound best for whatever reason, so I want a few cables.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I was not clear? "Balanced" (it ain't!) cable has two core, often red and black. By convention black is the "cold" side (pin 3 XLR, ring TRS) of the circuit and red the hot. If you tie black to screen each end* and simple use the red, hot wire you end up with an "UNbalanced" cable that can be used for any purpose, e.g. guitar lead. The capacitance (only usually a concern with passive guitar and then not a lot!) is minimized. Not perhaps as low as some of the specialist low cap' cables but then I would not pay for THAT particular brand of snake oil anyway!

*There is a shielding system which I call "shielded return" which uses 2 core cable in an unbalanced circuit and can help reduce hum loops and RFI. I can do scribbles if wanted.

Re "The Damo Sponge" debacle!!! Ok! Yes! Twas the received wisdom for decades (introduced by Weller themselves I believe?) but times change chaps! I had a SOOOPER solder station at J Beam (Haag? Something like that) expensive yellow thing. That used brass wool.

Dave.
 
This...https://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_fx951.html
was the beauty! I totally recommend the station to anyone considering any serious soldering. I was soldering earth tags heat shunted by a 2mtr long ally box, nay bother. The iron shuts down when parked but is back to Pbfree temp by the time hand has got it to the next joint.

Expensive but surely the last word in solder technology?

Dave.
 
The advice from the Weller guys was of course in the context of a factory situation. When soldering RJ45 jacks the "girls" (mostly) would do 8 joints per jack, 8 jacks per row 32 strips total batch =2048 joints and easily 2 batches an hour!
THAT is a lot of tip cleaning! I take the point about artificial fibres. I had a Weller #9 chunky tip for heavy jobs and that ran close to the ignition point of paper towels!

Dave.
 
Ecc83 and other experienced guys: what size tip do you recommend for this job?

I have a $45 Weller kit, and whatever tip size came with that (don't have it in front of me right now), so wondering if I need a smaller tip.
 
Yes you want a relatively small tip. You'll get various advice on what sort...some swear by chisel tips and others (including me) like pencil tips I'm hedging on the exact size because I've had the one I use for 16 years and honestly can't remember exactly what it was. However, it doesn't need to be tiny, just small enough to work on the size of joint you're making.
 
Don't know what a "$45 Weller kit" consists of! Over here just the solder pencil for a magnastat runs us 60 quid or so (~$100?).
Stock pencils used to come with a 2mm chisel tip, fine for virtually any cable work, you only need the very fine conical tip for precision SM work and they tend to wear out quicker IMEx (mind you, peeps tend to use them for heavier work and bend them!) .

Problem with the supplied chisel for me was it was the #7 temperature and that is a bit too cool for rapid work. A #8 2mm chisel will do 95% of jobs, even light Pbfree work although I strongly suggest the noob stay with 60/40 lead solder, much easier to work with and perfectly safe if you observe basic hand washing etc.

Dave.
 
Bobbsy said:
Not normally. With properly sized cable and connectors, it's not necessary.
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Agreed ^ But! One of the biggest drawbacks to cheap jack plugs is the crap cable clamp and strain relief.

I use about 50mm of shrink enclosing the internals of the "crap" jack and extending out to give SR.

Not HEAT sleeve but I use silicone sleeving down each wire in such things as DIN plugs and D connectors. For Ds, shrink multiple cables together and clamp.

If doing a LOT of cables a Hellerman sleever and some silicone grease is a good investment.

Dave.
 
Good reason not to use rubbish connectors!

I'll use some heat shrink if I'm doing something "funny"...for example I have some adaptor cables I built with FST which is too small for a standard XLR or TRS but which worked with the 3.5mm Jack at the other end.

Alas I can't borrow a Hellerman tool from work any more!
 
Bobbsy said:
Good reason not to use rubbish connectors!

I'll use some heat shrink if I'm doing something "funny"...for example I have some adaptor cables I built with FST which is too small for a standard XLR or TRS but which worked with the 3.5mm Jack at the other end.

Alas I can't borrow a Hellerman tool from work any more!
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Yes but! If you are filling up the back of a patchbay say and need a gazillion plugs it is madness to pay for Nookies! The bloody things will go in once and stay there! Same reason it is not worth buying quality cable. 4mm foil shielded at 25 quid per 100mtrs is fine, you are not going to drag it about a stage!

Then again, I was in a lab/workshop situation and had to make up various specials for test purposes. Might be used once every 6 months. Silly leaving £5 per pluggy in the cupboard. Work for the NPL? Yes. Newly formed amplifier manfctr? No.

And! Last of all. Pretty, quality leads with quality jacks on them tended to move, inexplicably, to the musician's studio area of the building and there was a distinctly positive law. The brighter the lead colour and the shinier the plugs the faster they moved!

Dave.
 
Yup. Thick mic cable was only used for, well, mics at our installation. Most other stuff was either multi core or FST as appropriate. I worked out once that we had more than 40km of audio cable linking things together.

We also made big use of Krone blocks for interconnects wherever possible. For example, patch fields were pre-wired in the shop to a Krone block that would be mounted at the back of the rack so incoming and outgoing runs could be quickly punched in. Made installation faster and changes easy. The cable schedule was pretty long though!
 
Bobbsy said:
Yup. Thick mic cable was only used for, well, mics at our installation. Most other stuff was either multi core or FST as appropriate. I worked out once that we had more than 40km of audio cable linking things together.

We also made big use of Krone blocks for interconnects wherever possible. For example, patch fields were pre-wired in the shop to a Krone block that would be mounted at the back of the rack so incoming and outgoing runs could be quickly punched in. Made installation faster and changes easy. The cable schedule was pretty long though!
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Don't talk to me about IDC Audio! When I left the Network company (had to, told the MD he was 'king mad...Well, he was!) I tried to get some people interested in some prototypes I had made of XLR, RCA, jack and DIN connectors on PCBs with IDC connectors aimed at the growing Home Recording market, knowing how resistant most home bods are to soldering. No interest. I should be a bloody miwyonare by now Rodney!

BTW I used Pressac blocks instead of Krone. Pressacs don't need the holes in the board for the plastic and have a wider gap allowing a test probe entry.

Dave.
 
Krone blocks became pretty common in the UK Television industry, probably because, since BT used them, they were common and easy to find and the insertion tools were also easy to get. I still have my RS Components Krone tool--which I'm happy to say works on Australian phone connectors (not that I'd ever mess with something installed by Telstra of course...not even if the original installer had done a rubbish job and left a loose connection that caused a crackly line...).
 
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