PWM/Servo cables

[vinnie]

How could I go about making my own servo/pwm cables. I can get the housings, cables and pins, I just don't want it to be any more complicated than it has to be. Thanks.

[Alan Anderson]

There's nothing complicated about it.

Cut the cable to length.
Separate the three wires at each end.
Strip the appropriate amount of each wire.
Insert each stripped wire into a pin or socket and crimp it.
Insert the crimped pins and sockets into the connector housings in the proper order.

Stripping the right amount of wire can take some practice.
Crimping things properly definitely takes some practice.

[NickE]

Here's a pretty good video that explains the process.

[DonRotolo]

Also included:
Be sure to insert the wires in the correct order to the connector body.

Practice crimping a lot to get good at it. Use only the correct crimper.
Some connector sockets are better than others. We use a type that grabs the square post on all four sides (known as MQS or Micro-Quadlock System, from Tyco) which seems to be better than what you might get from the robot or electronic catalogs.

[kamocat]

If you are using 24 gauge wire (that's the stiff "economy wire" from Hanson Hobbies), you can feel when the insulation of the wire has hit the conductor crimp. You want to insert the wire just up to this point, and then crimp.

Also, if the crimps are bending or not fully crimping, you may need to adjust the crimper tension.

Note that this is not, in fact, the correct crimper for these crimps. These dies are designed for crimps in D-sub connectors. However, $40 is affordable to most individuals for a crimper, where hundreds of dollars for the official dies is not.
So when you realized what a pain this is to make your own PWM cables, that's why. It takes a lot of skill when you don't have the right tool for the job.

EDIT:
The official crimper is something like this.

[Phalanx]

I've used the economy wire, the hoods, pins and economy crimping tool from Hansen hobbies with great success. We only make our own if we need something custom.

As everyone here has said, it takes some practice crimping and it is a bit of a pain. Here's a video of how to crimp:
http://www.youtube.com/user/hansenho.../1/Vptd2n5p5-I

However, if you need a custom size, or a custom hood (we use 2 x 3 hoods for our encoder connection on the digital side car) it's a definite plus.

It's also a definite plus to be able to make one in a pinch at a competition. I was recently at a off season event and another team needed one, but no one had brought any spares, so I made one for them in about 5 minutes.

It's certainly easier to use/but premade ones, but, don't underestimate or discount the ability to make your own in a pinch.