[SOLVED] How exactly do I read a pinout diagram???

KAP1020

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Mar 19, 2017
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I'm really interested in making my own sleeved cables but I cant understand these pinout diagrams at all or what they're for. Am I supposed to put specific wires in specific spots on each end or something? All I see is a number for each wire (for example, 1-24 on 24 pin power connector), except sometimes theres a blank one??? In video tutorials they just put connect every wire and I guess that's supposed to work but the pinouts make it seem super complicated. Can somebody please explain this to me? I havent been able to find any explanation and I feel pretty stupid right about now.
 
Solution
Every wire has to go to an EXACT spot at EACH end. Just because a wire goes to pin number 15 at one end (Just as an example) does not mean that it goes to pin number 15 in the connector at the other end. That's the WHOLE REASON we have pinouts, so that we can know exactly where EACH INDIVIDUAL wire has to go in relation to the connector it fits into and therefore the matching socket, header or whatever the connector has to plug into.

The best way to do things is to simply ONLY do one wire at a time if you are determined to do it yourself and depending on what model of power supply you have I might stringently recommend that you NOT do it yourself if it's a model that has inline capacitors. Any PSU with inline capacitors becomes either...
Every wire has to go to an EXACT spot at EACH end. Just because a wire goes to pin number 15 at one end (Just as an example) does not mean that it goes to pin number 15 in the connector at the other end. That's the WHOLE REASON we have pinouts, so that we can know exactly where EACH INDIVIDUAL wire has to go in relation to the connector it fits into and therefore the matching socket, header or whatever the connector has to plug into.

The best way to do things is to simply ONLY do one wire at a time if you are determined to do it yourself and depending on what model of power supply you have I might stringently recommend that you NOT do it yourself if it's a model that has inline capacitors. Any PSU with inline capacitors becomes either a real PITA or you end up having to shorten ALL of the cables in that bundle in order to eliminate the inline capacitors so then the cable doesn't have the same reach as before PLUS it will lose some of it's ability to suppress ripple, which is really not desirable but might be acceptable on units that already have exemplary ripple levels even without the inline caps.

In truth your best bet really, unless you are bound and determined to do it yourself, is to simply bite the bullet and pay somebody like Mainframe customs to build the cables for you. That's all they do, and they do it better than anybody else in the industry including Cable mod.


I have to say, and no offense intended, that if the basic premise of the pinout diagrams is too confusing you're going to have a hard go of it because really that's just something you either get, or you don't. There's really no way to understand it for you. And it CAN be quite complicated especially if you insist on disassembling the entire cable bundle at the same time which is why most folks tend to simply unclip and sleeve one cable at a time so there is no doubt as to where it is supposed to go because there will only be one undone from one pin location and no way to misunderstand anything.
 
Solution

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