extension leads

[Andrew Cousins]

Guys can you help me.

I hope I am in the right thread. Ok after having a plane destroyed due to a Y lead that only had the heat shrink holding the tinned wire together I have decided to make my own Y and extension leads.

I have had a quick look around for cable, connectors both male and female, plastic housing both male and female and a crimp tool.

Before I take the plunge I was hoping someone could let me know what you are using so I don’t buy the wrong stuff.

Many Thanks in advance Andy C

[Bruce Collinson]

Horribly fiddly Andrew. Notwithstanding the other consecutive thread about Hobbyking, this may be the rare occasion to go there first although I have issues with China generally. I know it looks easy when Your-Tube shows it, I lost the will to live.

BTC

[Peter Christy]

Whilst ordinary extension leads are easy enough to make, "Y" leads can be very fiddly as neither the crimp pins nor the plastic headers are designed to take two lots of wire. It can be done, but it isn't easy!

If you are going to go the "do-it-yourself" route, do get a set of the ratchet type crimp tools. The ordinary "squeeze" ones are useless. Only the ratchet types work properly.

--

Pete

[Frank Skilbeck]

I use the Ashlok crimping tool, which you can get from Fighter aces but if all you were doing is making up a couple of Y leads it would be cheaper to buy two extension leads and then cut and solder them together.

[Nigel R]

Y leads are surely a solder job, 3 splices needed, do a basic wiremans splice, don't do them next to each other, stagger them over a short distance.

Crimping the connectors, I don't know that I'd bother but as ever YMMV.

[Don Fry]

What's a basic wireman's splice?

[Fatscoleymo]

Buy a bunch of short extension leads for next to 'nowt and a 'roll' of extension cable from Hobbyking or Bangood.Cut the leads in two, solder in and heatshrink whatever length of cable you need. Not difficult to do. Six small soldered joints for each extension cable. You will always have materials around to make exactly what you need.

I too tried the crimping method years ago and it was so frustrating and never did manage to get it done correctly.

[Nigel R]

Sorry, brain fade, should read 'lineman's splice'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Union_splice

It's structurally strong enough to withstand the odd tug or pull if you e.g. forget to unplug your ailerons, not that I would ever do such a thing...

For our purposes we don't need lots of turns, just one or two. It also works very well with two wires on one end and a single wire on the other, for a Y lead.

[Stuphedd]

I hate Y leads anyway , but the best ones I have , were the ones that Ash sold , ( Ash as in Ashlok) which had only one wire but with a twin plug on one end , very neat and light .

I actually use one of his Crimpers as well , It was not cheap , but a good bit of kit ,

But in reality , is it really worth spending a lot of money making your own ,( crimpwise) or just buying a good quality one ,??

Probably all come from China anyway ,

[Plummet]

If crimping you should always give the connector a good tug to make sure that the crimp is good. This is to make sure that

1 The crimping is good and tight.

2 The crimp is metal to metal - I worked for a spell testing electronic instruments, and a common fault was a faulty crimp "Crimped onto insulation". This could lead to no connection, or an intermittent connection.

Plummet

[Dave Hess]

Posted by Fatscoleymo on 21/11/2018 16:01:14:

Buy a bunch of short extension leads for next to 'nowt and a 'roll' of extension cable from Hobbyking or Bangood.Cut the leads in two, solder in and heatshrink whatever length of cable you need. Not difficult to do. Six small soldered joints for each extension cable. You will always have materials around to make exactly what you need.

I too tried the crimping method years ago and it was so frustrating and never did manage to get it done correctly.

 

This what I do too. It's dead simple and takes no time. I do it slightly differently:

Take two single extension leads whatever length you want;

Cut them in half and throw away the one half you don't need, leaving three halves;

Strip all the ends;

Lay the two identical halves on top of each other, twist the three pairs of matching wires together and tin them;

Tin the three wires on the other half;

Thread on a bit of heat-shrink over one side and push it up the wire away from the wire end;

Hold the matching wires together and reheat them to solder them together;

Pull the heat-shrink over the joint and shrink it.

Job done. Dead simple and takes about 3 minutes. No special tools needed!

Edited By Dave Hess on 21/11/2018 17:11:06

[Simon Chaddock]

As a light weight fanatic (and a scrooge) I try to avoid conventional extension and Y leads.

If I have to extend a servo wire then I solder and heat shrink an extra length of wire on. To shorten a servo wire than I cut off the plug, shorten the wire, open out the cord grips on each plug/socket element, file down the wire grips and solder the wires back on again. Fiddly and slow but it is recycling.

The same applies to create a Y lead although I much prefer to solder two sets of wires to the plug if at all possible.

As Plummet commented soldered joints are electrically more reliable and it is surprising how many factory crimped wires pull out of servo plugs long before the wire actually breaks.

.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I'm not so sure about that, Simon. Unless the joint can be supported beyond the solder "creep", vibration or movement will often fracture wires where the solder terminates. For most of our connectors, such support is impractical and a good crimped joint should be more reliable.

[Don Fry]

Posted by Nigel R on 21/11/2018 16:12:25:

Sorry, brain fade, should read 'lineman's splice'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Union_splice

It's structurally strong enough to withstand the odd tug or pull if you e.g. forget to unplug your ailerons, not that I would ever do such a thing...

For our purposes we don't need lots of turns, just one or two. It also works very well with two wires on one end and a single wire on the other, for a Y lead.

Cool, my 2nd learning of the day. I will remember that.

First, when chatting to a little kid today, in French a volet is a window shutter, and the flap on a wing. Stand to sense.

[Andrew Cousins]

Guys many thanks for all your replies all very helpful.

The reason for me making my own extension and Y leads is that after a dodgy Y lead killed one of my planes i now do not trust any of them.

I do quite a bit of soldering in my job so this does not faze me.

Fatscoleymo. that sounds like a great idea. this would save me the expense of buying the crimp tool. I will be able to make up any length of extension and Y leads would be a breeze. My only worry then would be the crimp. I suppose i could remove them from the plastic housing and inspect them. Its a bit difficult to inspect a soldered joint that has heat shrink over it!!

is the dreaded EBAY a good place to get the extension cable?

Once again many thanks ALL.

[Johnny Kirkham]

Can anyone post a link to a decent pair of ratchet crimps that they would recommend? Cheers John

[Peter Miller]

Just a little tip that I have been using for years.

I solder servo leads to make Y leads occasionally but often to lengthen them.

Take a piece of scrap balsa, 3/16the osr thicker. Make grooves in this the same size as the individual wires.

Fit the two wires to be joined into the groove with the wires overlapping and solder. I pin them down. Neat joint the same size as the wire.

Oh! Don't forget to slip heat shrunk over the wires BEFORE joinng.

[Fatscoleymo]

Andrew, not sure why you are asking about the crimp? You will be using new leads, so plugs should be fine.... If you want plug them into a servo tester to check them before you extend. Leads and extension cable from Hobbyking / Bangood if you can wait (no delivery charges from Bangood no matter what the value of the order I believe) otherwise ebay or any number of retailers.

[Simon Chaddock]

Martin

I do support the wire insulation by re crimping the cable grips.

Here is one I did earlier.

It is of course crazy time consuming to do!

[cymaz]

I bought THIS from hk. Great tool and has a ratchet to help with positioning. The pins and plugs are easily available

[Andrew Cousins]

Fatscoleymo. Yes i know what your saying but this Y lead i bought was new. The plane had 5 flights with all new servos and leads but on the sixth flight the y lead gave up. The ends of one wire had been tinned but they had not been soldered together. The heat shrink that had been put on was all that was holding them together to make an electrical connection.

So i am now checking everything. Hence the reason for making my own leads. I know they will be good. The compromise with buying short extensions to modify is that i will have to check the crimps. No hard ship as they are easy to check.

Many Thanks