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diy solar

Small (i.e. not battery cables) connectors cables manufacturer

BiduleOhm

Electronics Sorcerer
Joined
Jan 30, 2020
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France
I stumbled on this post on hackaday and thought I should share it here as it will be very useful for some of us ?

If you need cables with connectors you can buy pre-made ones but half the time they're not available for the connector type you need (or pinout, or wire size, or wire length, or...) so the next option is to buy the wires, connectors and tool and do it yourself. But it takes a lot of time to assemble them and the crimping tools are often very expensive.

So Dirty PCBs made a service where you can buy totally custom cables called Dirty Cables: http://dirtypcbs.com/store/cables

Now the big downside is the minimum quantity of 100 as usually you only need a couple of them... but if someone want to do a group buy for multiple members in need of the same cable for a BMS, inverter, etc. it's pretty nice.

I did a test and for a 20 pin ATX connector with 16 AWG 60 cm wires and it costs 6.78 USD per cable + shipping, which is reasonable given it's totally custom. Smaller connectors and thinner wires will be less expensive BTW.

Now if someone knows a company doing the same thing but with a lower minimum quantity and/or lower prices it would be even better ?
 
It's just me doing projects for myself, so I'm not likely to be buying pre-built cables, especially in large quantities. Often, I don't know the length I need, until two minutes before I need it. I don't want excess cable in my layout because I ordered a 24" cable but really only needed 7".

Prior to this solar project I was buying pre-built cables. The final results either looked stressed due to cables being almost too short, or sloppy due to cables being too long.

Cost is the other factor. Yes, it's a large upfront cost to buy the right tools and bulk wire. Eventually, it will be economic, once I've done my 30th solar install on my 30th trailer. My wife's not buying that. :(
 
Yea it's definitely not for everyone.

If only they would make the minimum quantity to 5 or 10...

30th trailer... :ROFLMAO:
 
Yea it's definitely not for everyone.

If only they would make the minimum quantity to 5 or 10...

30th trailer... :ROFLMAO:

She's getting me back for me giving her a hard time about making her own bread. She bought an expensive bread maker that mixed the dough, kneaded it and then baked it. I was loosely keeping track of the number of loaves. I think the last loaf was a $10 loaf. The quality of the bread was never that great. I wonder if it is one of those items that quietly went to Goodwill. I probably shouldn't ask. :)
 
Yea it's definitely not for everyone.

If only they would make the minimum quantity to 5 or 10...

30th trailer... :ROFLMAO:
Long bms balance leads are on my wish list.
I wonder how long is too long?
 
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