Was just wondering if the pinouts on the 14 and 17 amphenol control cables are straight through? That is, A->A, B->B, C->C, etc...? It looks like only 9 pins are used, A-E,G,I,J,K. I'd rather roll my own than shell out $200 for an OEM cable (robbery) Anyone have a source of cheap amphenols? (or extra cables for sale? :^)
Connectors in general are high ticket items, the good ones that are rugged field-serviceable, and with high interconnect reliability, are even more so. The amphenol M/S series such as these qualify as 'good ones.' That's why they're used in welders like this.
One approach would be to purchase the connector from a supply house like Newark (they often stock many of the more common varieties - but lead times in general for connectors can be months) and wire up the cable yourself.
However doing so will lead one to the conclusion that maybe that two hundred dollar cable isn't robbery after all. I can wire a multi-pin connector like that in a half hour or so, but that's because I've done about a bazillion of them and have a microscope and all the right tools and so on. (the connector alone will cost about fifty bucks or so)
Another approach if the real amphenol connector is too expensive is to purchase a generic connector like a Molex or a Connexall from Newark and replace the receptacle on the welder. Or, you could remove the connector on the welder altogether and just splice the conductors from your cable right into the machine.
For bonus points you have to strip the wires with a dull pocketknife, and use a bunch of those tiny ceramic wire nuts to hook them all together, and then wrap the resulting bundle with a few yards of black friction tape.
Then, and *only* then, will you have an electrical job that can be identified as having been done by a welder!
:)
Jim
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Why when I was a lad, we had to solder the Amphenol connectors for Raytheon marine radars while lying on our sides in a sail locker on a rocking boat. These were large multiconductor cables with multiple strands of coax and several shields. The instructions were very detailed and ran to several pages. I always considered it a minor miracle when the radar actually worked after installation.
The Amp circular plastic connectors are a pretty good compromise. Not quite as rugged as the Amphenols, but very reliable, easily available, and much less expensive.
Use a continuity tester to find out, then put the results on the web, or in the dropbox.
Well, the crimper can be expensive. And soldering takes time. And if you make a mistake, will the welder blow up?
Digi-Key sells LOTS of prime connectors: 1-800-digi-key to start, then digikey.com, then scan your connector and email it to a tech there.
A scan on an accurate scanner will help them a lot more than a pic with a camera.
Yours,
Doug Goncz, Replikon Research, Seven Corners, VA Unpublished work Copyright 2003 Doug Goncz Fair use and Usenet distribution without restriction or fee Civil and criminal penalties for circumvention of any embedded encryption
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