Almost all of the gear has arrived to build the HD800S cable:
Short term objective is to watch soldering videos and complete the kit this week. Also had my first beginner's moment...the 550 cord is 4.0mm in diameter, but the Canare 4E6S is 6.0mm and I want to leave the PVC jacket on the cable for a thicker and firmer feel. So I ordered Canare 4E5C which at only 4.8mm should fit with the aid of a paracord fid.
- Soldering Iron & Station
- 0.5mm Lead-Free Solder
- Heat Shrink without markings
- Over-powered heat gun
- Soldering tip cleaner
- HD800S connectors
- Black Aluminum Y-Splitter
- Canare 4E6S
- A wide variety of 550 paracord, along with some 275 and 95 paracord
- Neutrik NC4MXX-B 4-Pin XLR-M Cable
- Learn to Solder Kit
I'll post pics as I make progress.
All done! Took about 6 hours start to finish. Lessons Learned:
- 0.5mm solder is too thin for the headphone wire joints I was working with. 0.8mm or 1.0mm will allow me to solder faster.
- Below is a 550 Paracord Cable Sleeve Chart for Canare Quad cables. Y = Yes it will fit into 550 Paracord; N = No it will not fit into 550 Paracord. I ended up using L-4E6S stripped down to the wire insulation for the entire cable.
- Removing the copper shielding from Canare cables is a PITA because it is braided. The best solution I found was to cut the shielding VERY carefully lengthwise and then "peel" it open, which is the same method I used to remove the PVC jacket. In the future I would be willing to buy Mogami just because their shielding is spiraled.
- A wire stripper that can handle AWG 20-30 is a must-have for a beginner. Yes you can strip wires with a utility knife (or any sharp blade for that matter), but it's not a good time.
- Sharp scissors designed to cut paracord and trim strands that fray is a must-have. Cutting and trimming paracord with a knife is not a good time.
- Whoever designed the HD800/HD800S connectors needs to be slapped in the face, and then should write an apology whose word length is determined by the number of HD800 connectors DIYers have had to solder, multiplied by the average cost of a connector.
- Since the cable without the PVC jacket and shielding is relatively light, the cable doesn't "plop" on my desk as much as I had hoped.
- All things considered, I'm happy with how it turned out for a first project. I think my next one will be a XLR to 4.4mm pentacon adapter.