GB1 ribbon cable questions

Equipment Proton Packs
1

I have a couple questions:

  1. How thick are the wires in the GB1 cable?

I know the equipment section says 22 AWG, but I recently came across some surpluss 22 AWG wire, and it came in two diffrent diameters, with one being twice as thick as the other, simply due to the insulator being thicker. I would assume the thinner insulator is the desired one, but in the pics the wire looks like it could be thicker than that, and that means it may not be 22 AWG at all, because the thicker 22 AWG looked too thick to me.

  1. What do you think would be the best way of going about constructing such a cable?

I’ve seen some clear spray on rubberized coatings, and I’ve heard of people using lamination, but I don’t know how you’d go about laminating a bunch of wires, and I wonder if it would take on the shape of the wires like with professionally laminated cables. Clear heat shrink tubing is something else that occured to me, but I have no idea if you could get it in a large enough size, or how you’d keep it from bunching the wire up.

2

  1. You can’t really go by the wire gauge when determining size because, as you have mentioned, the insulation thickness is huge difference in OD. A thicker insulation with smaller wire(s) inside would be better for this application because it would provide more flexibility when you have a bunch of them together. As for actual size, something around 0.125" OD (slightly smaller actually, but I am rounding up for simplicity) is what you’d need.

  2. The discussion about how to build a cable probably won’t go anywhere, most ideas have been discussed and won’t work. There is no heat shrink tubing that is large enough to do the cable. The ideas that work are being applied by the people that offer GB1 cable replicas and it’s unlikely they will share their secrets, though Java has mentioned offering a kit with all the stuff needed and instructions on how to put it all together.

3

Well I noticed AJ as asking over on Proptopia about whether someone’s cables were made by applying a clear spray, and I was wondering why he’d ask that, as I had been considering a clear rubberized spray as a potential way to bind them together.

I’d like to know if someone’s attempted that and had it fail before I go about doing it. AJ did seem to think he might be using acrylic or something. I guess that would explain his concerns. Acrylic would probably be a bit inflexible and crack. Maybe even yellow over time.

4

Actually, I’d like to know how much interest there’d be in these cables. I have a local source for the striped wire in 22AWG as well as other gauges. But I don’t know what the quality level is of the other cables which are being offered, so I don’t know if there’s any room in the market.

5

As of right now, the only 2 people I know that are making GB1 cables is Java and solidgoldcaddy. Solidgoldcaddy actually has an interest thread going on Proptopia and I believe Java might be offering them again soon on there too. There really isn’t anyone on GBfans.com offering them right now though. As far as I’m concerned, there is always room in the market for these cables. Competition breeds quality and lowers prices!

6

Not necessarily, sometimes vendors just say screw it I’m not doing it anymore and then you end up with nothing.

7

I luckily got a Java cable through AJ who had an extra and have to say his cable is top quality.