ribbon cables

[Guest]

This is an attempt to increase airflow in the cabinet for minimal expences. I have "disassembled" the hdd ribbon cable so that it is not flat.(Cut all the wires appart, keeping insulation complete) Then taping them together making a round and much smaller cable.(Could also use a shrinking tube or whatever it is called in english )

My q is.... is there a specific reason to why the ribbon cable is flat? is it an attempt to keep certain conductors far from each others to prevent "crosstalk"(magnectic)???

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[Lars_Coleman]

From what I have heard is that they make them flat because it's cheaper.

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[Guest]

ok.....cuz with a sharp blade and a roll of electrical tape, u have urself a round cable

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[digital_trucker]

From what I've heard, there may be an issue of electrical interference in using round cables versus flat ones.

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[Guest]

well.....i'm gonna test this on two ide harddisks and one cdrom drive + one scsi cd-drive....

time will tell(and maybe i'm gonna have to get myself new cables )

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[HonestJhon]

another thing is that the self rounded cables, i dont know about the machine rounded cables, they are very stiff...
at least mine were.


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[Guest]

don't bundle the wires, it will cause data lose. when you bundle electrical wires together, you create magnetic fields, such as those you find in an electric motor which has bundles of wire with electricity flowing through them.

you are better off to fold the wires, such as they do in Voodoo PC's. not sure if you have seen the article in MaximumPC magazine, but they fold the wires to follow the walls of the PC case, thus creating airflow without the data corruption.

buying some profession ATA rounded cables may be okay, since they are more likely to have thicker insulation, or at least should. but as for doing it yourself, your risking data corruption.

if you use quality parts, you will have quality results

 

[camieabz]

With ATA100 cables, of the 80 wires, 40 of them are just there for reducing interference. Apparently (never tested to knoe for sure) cutting and rounding them increases the chance of interference.

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[CALV]

I've always done this, never had a problem, I dont use heatshrink though, I simply tape it round every few inches. be careful with a 66/100 cable as its easy to split the insulation.


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[ejsmith2]

Yes, rounding your cables helps. Yes, the extra conductors are there to prevent crosstalk. No, it matters not how far apart they are; 40 could run up one side of the case, and the other 40 up the other side of the case; they would still do their job, which means, udma mode-5 ata-100.

If you don't want to take the chance of cutting into/through a wire, you can crank down on them with elec. tape or duct tape. The 'machine' rounded ones at plycon/etc. are no better than the ones that you do yourself, they have just added a nifty vinyl sheath to it.