DIY DC power cables

[LittleNemo]

Does anyone know how well Belden 8404 would work for DC cables.  It's Starquad 4x20AWG with tinned Copper braid shield.  Pretty equal numbers compared to Canare 4S6 but slightly higher capacitance.  For short length runs though I doubt it would make a big difference.  I figure this would be a great candidate for JSSG or even remove the insulation, wrap in teflon tape, then JSSG360.

 

If anyone knows of any teflon starquad braided shield cable that is less than 6mm let me know.  Ghent uses a silver tinned cable that is $30 more expensive than its Canare 4S6 counterpart.  I thought that was kind of excessive so trying to do my own JSSG.

[JohnSwenson]

On 10/27/2018 at 2:35 PM, LittleNemo said:

Does anyone know how well Belden 8404 would work for DC cables.  It's Starquad 4x20AWG with tinned Copper braid shield.  Pretty equal numbers compared to Canare 4S6 but slightly higher capacitance.  For short length runs though I doubt it would make a big difference.  I figure this would be a great candidate for JSSG or even remove the insulation, wrap in teflon tape, then JSSG360.

 

If anyone knows of any teflon starquad braided shield cable that is less than 6mm let me know.  Ghent uses a silver tinned cable that is $30 more expensive than its Canare 4S6 counterpart.  I thought that was kind of excessive so trying to do my own JSSG.

I prefer 8424, it uses a dielectric that has much better properties than the 8404 or the Canare. All the experimentation recently seems to show that the dielectric properties really do matter.

 

John S.

[sunny_time_99]

Hello,

it took me 1,5 days to read this thread. Wow, so much to say about DC-Cable. Now i came to the Point were I need a little bit help from you. At the moment i am building a amplifier with the newclassd singularity 2 modules. i need to use 2 enclosures if i want it to look nice to the rest of my hifi stuff.

Lars Clausen is doing that too in his singularity cookbook v3. https://www.newclassd.com/NCDCOOKBOOK300.pdf  (i took one of his pics, to make clear how it should look like). He recommended to use awg 12-14 silver plated copper to connect the  caps close to the rectifier and the big big caps close to the amplifier module. That means i don´t have only a +/- cable. I need +/gnd/-. Any idea how to build this in starquad? two lines? one positive/gnd and negative gnd? Forget starquad - use 3 wires awg 12-14? shielded or not?

I see a benefit from starquad in this connection -

 

thx and regards

 

sunny

[Middy]

Run a ground wire spiralling around the quad and heat shink it in place? 

I am slowly making a new power supply for a Head Amp Gilore lite MK2. The 230 SMPS gets angry on UK 251V, i peak at  in Birmingham.  As the amp needs 15v + -  and 0v I am in the same situation @sunny_time_99 only not as bright as you ?  

 

I was going to use quad, copper braid, lay the ground  wire on top, then heat shrink.

Would it be pointless to use a twisted pair for 0v.  Not for common mode rejection?. Same length of wire at all 3 points  + - 0v  ?? 3x 2 twisted pairs. One pair a lazy loop around outside of quad cable..

 

Good luck Sunny, a million miles away from my capabilities...

 

Dave 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nenon]

Has anybody tried the VH Audio V-Quad Cu21/Cu24 cable? I wonder how it compares with the Canare Star Quad cable suggested here for a DC cable? It looks like a good alternative. Much more expensive, but I don't need more than a foot.

[Ralf11]

On 12/11/2018 at 4:09 PM, Middy said:

....

Good luck Sunny, a million miles away from my capabilities...

 

Dave 

 

 

 

 

 

 

just buy one from Ghent - not expensive and if not happy you could even resell it

[Middy]

Hi Ralf hope you had a good day my friend. Its for headphone amp power lead + - 0v. I have quad already, and will use that for plus minus 15v. It was the Ov the issue as does it make a difference single wire or a twisted pair to match the length in the quad. I can solder very well, this is hard wired, my issue is electrickery. I am lucky that i work for RR controls electronics, taking an 18v rcore  LPS and using Alexie's LDOVR dual polarity reg.  I am getting a lot of help.. a lot.. Headamp promised a better PSU  and i want rid of the walmart brick..

Hopefully i can get a bit more SQ when i finally get it all together.

Have a great new year Ralf

David

 

The cables the only bit i can do solo...?

 

 

 

 

[Ralf11]

I did - thx.  And you as well.  I'm not sure I understand your problem tho...

 

A Walmart brick doesn't sound like a great idea, but it may not be a source of low SQ.  Also, you say quad, but Star-Quad is a particular geometric configuration that reduces EMF (but can alter capacitance too).

 

So are you looking for a new brick?  Or a new cable or...?

 

Also a budget will help...

[sunny_time_99]

Hi ralf,

i think middy and i got the same problem. He is searching for a

star-quad cable for  +15/0/-15v and i was asking for an idea... +65/0/-65V. I finished the cables that are connecting both big caps in the two enclosures. I was too lazy... Just done it in 12AWG silver plated copper... And a js shielding.

 

Regards

 

Sunny

[d_elm]

On 4/4/2018 at 7:10 PM, d_elm said:

Belden 9418, 4x18 AWG implementing a starquad, + JSSG is likely all that is needed for a DC cable.  The starquad pattern is for lowest inductance and 18 AWG is for lowest resistance with wires that will fit into an Oyaide connector.  Silver conducts only 6% better than

copper and silver wire is very expensive so I did not consider it for building a cable.

 

Connectors can make a large contribution to the resistance of a cable.  Low cost connectors ($0.50 each) I measured were about 5.0 milliOhm and Oyaide DC-2.1G[L] connectors were less than 0.5 milliOhm.  The 80cm DC cables I made had a resistance on each line, including Oyaide connectors, of 8.0 milliOhm.  I do not have a working signal generator to determine the inductance.

 

To make a starquad I purchased Neotech hook-up wire, 18 AWG stranded with PVC insulation.  This wire with silver insulation is 2.76 mm OD and with red insulation is 2.83 mm.  The same wire with PTFE insulation, much more expensive, I have read is 2.2 mm OD, perhaps a bit easier to work with.

 

I started with soldering two red wires to a DC-2.1GL.  The wires are horizontal in connector.

 

 

The insulation is too thick for four wires to go through the Oyaide connector barrel so I replaced insulation on the silver wires with heat shrink tubing.

 

Ensure the heat shrink tubing is long enough to clear the end of the connector barrel.

 

There is a temporary piece of heat shrink tubing to aid in connecting the silver pair to the connector.

 

Remove after soldering as there is little room inside the barrel.

 

I used 1/4" pieces of 3/8" 2:1 heat shrink, about every 1.5",  to hold the four wires in a starquad pattern.

 

I covered the starquad with 1/4" braided shield before the second connector was attached.  If the second connector is attached

first 3/8" braided shield is needed, to get over the connector.

 

 

The other connector I used is an Oyaide DC-2.1G and the red wires are soldered in the vertical position.

 

And the final assembly of the straight connector.

 

I covered the cable with 1/4" Techflex clean cut pet expandable tubing and held it in place with 3/8" heat shrink tubing.

 

Have fun !

 

 

I have an update for the DC cable construction.

 

1) use PTFE insulation instead of PVC.  Easily worth the money in SQ.  I have made the comparison where this is the only difference and it is real, for me.  Also easier to wire the connectors as the PTFE insulation is a smaller diameter.  But PTFE is slippery so purchase heat shrink tubing that contains glue.  The 3:1 tubing I purchase has glue.

2) instead of JSSG (single floating shield with spiral wire connecting ends of shield)

     I now have three shield layers with white PTFE tape between the starquad and each shield layer.  Three shields are connected at one end, I choose the source end, and the inner and outer shield are connected at the other end.

[look&listen]

32 minutes ago, d_elm said:

Three shields are connected at one end, I choose the source end, and the inner and outer shield are connected at the other end.

like Lush^2 favored set 

[d_elm]

57 minutes ago, look&listen said:

like Lush^2 favored set 

That is correct.

[look&listen]

2 minutes ago, d_elm said:

That is correct.

My practice (not perfect) to credit source of great design ideas, like @PeterSt crowd-sourced experiment. Honest & honorable & small price for thievery . Good for you too, best steal from best. right?

[MikeyFresh]

On 12/24/2018 at 3:53 PM, Nenon said:

Has anybody tried the VH Audio V-Quad Cu21/Cu24 cable? I wonder how it compares with the Canare Star Quad cable suggested here for a DC cable? It looks like a good alternative. Much more expensive, but I don't need more than a foot.

 

Could be a very interesting comparison, very different from either the Canare or Gotham cables in that there is no integral shielding at all, and the OCC conductors are solid core not stranded, with foamed/cellular insulator that has an extremely low dielectric constant of less than 1.5.

[sbronf]

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/balanced-cables/canare-l-4e6s-star-quad-high-performance-microphone-cable-shielded-041mm-o6mm-p-10457.html

What do you thank a out this for a dc cable?

it s like cantare 4s6, buy with shielding and a little thinner

 

[RickyV]

On 12/30/2018 at 3:56 AM, MikeyFresh said:

with foamed/cellular insulator that has an extremely low dielectric constant of less than 1.5.

Or cotton 

[tapatrick]

Not sure if this has been mentioned here but it ought to be on everyones to try list, an essential way to run your DC cables. Basically its using 2 ethernet cables, one for the + and one for the – of each DC power cable and even better joining another pair of ethernet cables with a short high quality silver twisted pair. I don't have the time at present to describe the details as I'm travelling for work but its all explained on the USaudioMart thread linked below. 

 

I don't know why this is not all over the CA/AS forums. Its been mentioned a few times but doesn't get picked up. Just read about it and do it. It transformed my system in a way you would not think possible.

 

https://www.usaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1465&p=12136#p12136

[lmitche]

57 minutes ago, tapatrick said:

Not sure if this has been mentioned here but it ought to be on everyones to try list, an essential way to run your DC cables. Basically its using 2 ethernet cables, one for the + and one for the – of each DC power cable and even better joining another pair of ethernet cables with a short high quality silver twisted pair. I don't have the time at present to describe the details as I'm travelling for work but its all explained on the USaudioMart thread linked below. 

 

I don't know why this is not all over the CA/AS forums. Its been mentioned a few times but doesn't get picked up. Just read about it and do it. It transformed my system in a way you would not think possible.

 

https://www.usaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1465&p=12136#p12136

So sad to read about Rob's death.

[tapatrick]

On 4/11/2019 at 11:06 PM, lmitche said:

So sad to read about Rob's death.

Yes indeed. I just read the news on his thread. He will be sadly missed and may he rest in peace. 

[Ossanboy]

Dear John,

 

Halo, I just joined this forum today. I stumbled upon it when researching about network switcher for streaming audio.

 

I cant believe how much this forum offers!! So much knowledge!!

 

I found out about JSSG only yesterday. I want to try it first with my power amplifier internal wiring. The cable I use is Mogami W3104 11AWG (speaker cable). It sounds amazing but I want to try to JSSG every single one of them. Will this be beneficial ?

 

Here are photos of my amp.

 

Thank you

[ken6217]

I'm going to purchase the Regen this week and will use my LPS. Is DC cable end going into the Regen 2.1mm or 2.5mm?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Dutch]

26 minutes ago, ken6217 said:

I'm going to purchase the Regen this week and will use my LPS. Is DC cable end going into the Regen 2.1mm or 2.5mm?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

It’s 2.1x5.5mm Ken. Enjoy!

[ken6217]

4 hours ago, Dutch said:

 

It’s 2.1x5.5mm Ken. Enjoy!

 

Thank you.

[sbronf]

Hi guys, I'd like an advice on which cable (I already have them), it's the best to be used as a power rail for a USB cable Y diy(for data rail i have used a usb 2.0 certified cable,this:

https://tensility.com/wire/ul-2725/30-00872

 

option 1: canare 2ts2 

http://www.canare.com/ProductItemDisplay.aspx?productItemID=57

 

option 2: belden 9463.

Blue Hose® for Data Highway Plus, 1 Pair 20AWG (7x28) Tinned Copper, PO Insulation Blu,Wht Color Code, Overall Beldfoil®+Tinned Copper Braid(55%) Shield, Blue PVC Outer Jacket, CMrated at 300 volts. 12uH inductance

 https://catalog.belden.com/index.cfm?event=pd&p=PF_9463

 

Option 3: Belden 9829.

Computer EIA RS-232/422 Cable, 24 AWG stranded (7x32) tinned copper conductors, polyethylene insulation, twisted pairs, overall Beldfoil® (100% coverage) + tinned copper braid shield (65% coverage), 24 AWG stranded tinned copper drain wire, PVC jacket.

https://catalog.belden.com/index.cfm?event=pd&p=PF_9829

 

option 4: canare 4s6 starquad not shielded

http://www.canare.com/ProductItemDisplay.aspx?productItemID=63

 

option 5: canare 4e6s, starquad cable, shielded

http://www.canare.com/ProductItemDisplay.aspx?productItemID=53.

 

thank you very much

[R1200CL]

I think option 5 and add JSSG 360 😀

 

The Gotham cable may be an alternative.