

The deal With Dirt Cheap Dirty Boards PCBs - kasbah
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2014/04/16/the-deal-with-dirty-cheap-dirty-boards-pcbs/

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ChuckMcM
The 'Dirty Cables' business could be a huge win for the DIY market, it is a
real weak point that folks are constrained to existing cables. With a custom
cable you can build interconnects effectively that enable multi-board projects
(like the old Cupcake 3D printer from Makerbot) without weird wiring
harnesses. _That_ is a cool thing to be coming down the pipe.

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HeyLaughingBoy
I don't quite understand this comment. It's true that cabling can be labor-
intensive and require expensive equipment to do properly, but making custom
cables isn't really difficult. Certainly not to the point that I'd say they
are "constrained to existing cables."

I've had a weird fascination with cable-making ever since I started using
large circular connectors so I looked at the Cupcake build sequence guide for
cabling. It is odd that they specified RJ45 connectors in some cases, but I
put that down to their low cost. Is this what you're referring to?

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ChuckMcM
Typically DIY inter-board cabling is either insulation displacement (IDC),
some sort of DB-9/15/25 or a variant of RJ-11/12/45\. Heathkit used to have
folks build cables with Molex KK crimp on connectors (which was very time
consuming) but you could combine things like power lines (AWG22) and signal
lines (AWG28) into the cable bundle. Today there is a tremendous number of
connectors for which making your own cable is problematic at best, for example
the .5mm spaced IDC cables, or the FFC connectors like the camera connector on
the RasPi. I looked into getting an LVDS connector for LCDs (typical laptop
screen) to something more DIY friendly, tooling was $2500, and cables would be
$25 each, minimum 10) Did I want to invest nearly $3K to get one cable? No,
but if enough people were interested it gets to be lower cost. Setting up that
infrastructure as a service (making cables in small to medium quantity) would
be, in my opinion, quite aweseome.

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HeyLaughingBoy
OK, I see now

I missed that because all of my cabling needs are easily met by manual
assembly: most custom cables I make are for CPC (Circular Plastic Connector)
"Cannon" type connectors and the Series III contacts are still doable by hand
(although machines do a much better job of crimping). 2mm pitch connectors are
the limit of my ability.

My biggest problem is doing a good job in volume. Thankfully I've found a wire
processor with very low setup fees.

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atesti
What's the difference to iteadstudio, seedstudio or elecrow? I ordered boards
from these three and found them excellent! Pricing is similar. But the more of
these services, the better I guess.

