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Suggestions for IDE cable management

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I just tried it out on the extra cable I had and I think I'm going to just do this for all of em. I cut it every 4 wires.

dd15f2a8-5920-4319-b692-a1f4a09665bd
YLG9Wu4.jpg


Then I'll wrap it in some of the braided sleeves and put heat shrink on the end. The thickness is like .35" when they are stacked that way so I'll go with the 1/2" braid.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to make a cleaner looking cover for the part where the wires meet the connector? Like on the professional ones it has a nice transition covering that part. Maybe I could get some 2" heatshrink and use that on the ends but then it would have to shrink down 4x to cover the edges of the 1/2" sleeve. I've seen a bunch of 3:1 stuff when searching amazon but not sure if I saw 4:1 stuff.
 
Red Squirrel said:
That's actually quite decent.
Click to expand...
Yeah I measured again and I'm going to get 3/8" sleeving instead of 1/2". 3/8" will fit fine and I'd rather not have any excess sleeving around the stuff if I don't need it.

Still trying to figure out what (if anything) I can do about cleaning up the connectors a bit that will be outside of the sleeving. I haven't messed with heat shrink that much at all but I see the 2" stuff is pretty rare and won't shrink down to the 3/8" around the cable.

Does heat shrink stretch? Like could I stretch a 1" diameter one to fit around the nearly 2" IDE connector?
 
Red Squirrel said:
You could also buy the crimp tools and raw cabling to make your own, that way you can make them the exact sizes you want. Not sure what kind of frequencies we're talking about with arcade games or how critical things like impedance is but I wonder if you could even substitute the cables for individual wires with plugs at the ends then bundle them together.

I was looking at that stuff briefly on Digikey as IDE style cables are kinda versatile for custom projects and the pin pitch matches most protoboards.
Click to expand...
wait, what? I've never before heard of DIY IDE cables.
Is that really a thing?
 
manly said:
wait, what? I've never before heard of DIY IDE cables.
Is that really a thing?
Click to expand...

Yeah I never did it myself but you can make your own if you buy the connectors and stuff. Essentially you crimp the connector on and it has teeth that dig into the cable, so you can put as many connectors as you want anywhere on the cable. I think it can be done with just a vice so you don't really need a special crimper. Sites like Digikey have the parts. I think it's actually referred to as ribbon cable, as IDE is more specific to HDDs.
 
purbeast0 said:
Did you think that some magical machines make cables lol? I would say most cables can be DIY.
Click to expand...
Machines aren't magical, but they do manufacture virtually all cables that consumers actually use.
I wasn't aware that people crimp their own ribbon cables, but apparently there are applications that make it useful.

Do you make your own USB, Lightning or HDMI cables too?
Why are you modding existing cables if you can DIY from the component ribbons and plugs? 😛
 
manly said:
Machines aren't magical, but they do manufacture virtually all cables that consumers actually use.
I wasn't aware that people crimp their own ribbon cables, but apparently there are applications that make it useful.

Do you make your own USB, Lightning or HDMI cables too?
Why are you modding existing cables if you can DIY from the component ribbons and plugs? 😛
Click to expand...
Because I don't have the tools for it and buying the tools to do it and raw parts wouldn't be worth it. It's not like I am making IDE cables all the time. This is the first time I've used IDE cables in over a decade.

I do make my own network cables and coax cables but haven't had to do that in a while. I also have been making a bunch of my own harnesses that are using various different molex pins and connectors and have a crimping tool for that, as well as bunch of different connectors and pins.

Anyways, I ended up getting 2 different types of sleeving and I'm going to try em both out and return the other one I don't use.

This one is like heat shrink + sleeve in the same, which is kind of appealing.


Then I got this sleeve as well and some heat shrink to put around the ends.


Will report back after I try em both out with the results!
 
purbeast0 said:
I just tried it out on the extra cable I had and I think I'm going to just do this for all of em. I cut it every 4 wires.

dd15f2a8-5920-4319-b692-a1f4a09665bd
YLG9Wu4.jpg


Then I'll wrap it in some of the braided sleeves and put heat shrink on the end. The thickness is like .35" when they are stacked that way so I'll go with the 1/2" braid.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to make a cleaner looking cover for the part where the wires meet the connector? Like on the professional ones it has a nice transition covering that part. Maybe I could get some 2" heatshrink and use that on the ends but then it would have to shrink down 4x to cover the edges of the 1/2" sleeve. I've seen a bunch of 3:1 stuff when searching amazon but not sure if I saw 4:1 stuff.
Click to expand...


Those sleeve things are put in before you put on the connectors.
 
Last edited:
sdifox said:
Those sleece things are put in before you put on the connectors.
Click to expand...
That is kind of what I figured but wasn't sure. I wouldn't even know what to search for on those, or if they sell them separately.

I actually re-ziptied that one cable and did it slightly different and the zipties near the connectors are even closer, so I think that is good enough once I get the sleeves on.
 
purbeast0 said:
That is kind of what I figured but wasn't sure. I wouldn't even know what to search for on those, or if they sell them separately.

I actually re-ziptied that one cable and did it slightly different and the zipties near the connectors are even closer, so I think that is good enough once I get the sleeves on.
Click to expand...

You might be able to run the cable through a shrink tube smaller than the connector. Undo the zip ties and you might be able to angle the connector and push through carefully.
 
sdifox said:
You might be able to run the cable through a shrink tube smaller than the connector. Undo the zip ties and you might be able to angle the connector and push through carefully.
Click to expand...
I know the braided sleeve stuff I got expands but didn't see much about the shrink tube sleeve I got expanding at all, so I'll just have to see. From the reviews of the shrink tube stuff, it gets kind of stiff and plastic like so I'll have to see exactly how it feels after shrinking it.
 
shortylickens said:
I just did.
You're bullshit theory has already been proven bullshit, Donald Trump.
Click to expand...

Then you'd be wrong.SATA is NOT IDE.

PATA is IDE. (sort of) (which is what you linked)

Difference Between IDE and PATA

IDE vs PATA IDE and PATA are two terms that people typically get confused over since they are used in referring to pretty much the same hard drives. Although it might seem like there should
www.differencebetween.net www.differencebetween.net
 
purbeast0 said:
Since I'm guessing most people have no clue what this is for, I just took this video to show. It's still processing so SD may only be available.

Click to expand...
Oh, OK, yea since SATA has been the standard for so long now a lot of us were confused. I used to run the round IDE cables back when, they cost a bit more but resulted in better airflow and reduced clutter.
 
Well I got the Amazon package today. The heat shrink sleeve didn't stretch at all so I couldn't get it over the IDE connector so that was a no go from the get go.

But the other expandable braided stuff worked fine. I couldn't get the heat shrink around the IDE connector either so I cut it long wise and super glued it together on the under side. Then when I shrunk it down I just didn't heat up that side of things. It seemed to work out fine.

wQ8wxYo.jpg


Here's a pic of just the one attached to the board I have sitting outside the cabinet.

9bCv2h2.jpg
 
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