Power Cable Options

[Danner Gardner]

Greetings,

 

I'm wanting to make some custom power cables but wanted some suggestions on a decent, two conductor cable with a flexible jacket. Let me know what you recommend.

 

Thanks!

[Phil Rhodes]

I just tend to use two-core mains cable - something with a round outer, obviously.

 

Sometimes I have used scrap microphone cable - use both the cores for one leg, and the screen for the other, though it tends to be less flexible and probably will stand less current. The star quad stuff is really good, though expensive unless you happen to have some lying around unused.

 

I have some random four-core stuff I've used, too. Not sure what it is, looks a bit like four core mains cable, but you can pair the cores up again for increased capacity.

 

What are you terminating it with?

[Danner Gardner]

I thought about using mic cable but was didn't know what gauge the wire is usually. The power cable would be used to power camera (24V). I would be terminating it to XLR.

[Phil Rhodes]

What's the power consumption on the camera? What sort of cameras do you want to accommodate?

[Danner Gardner]

It's about 2.5 Amps with normal accessories with a 6.3 Amp fuse in the body so that's the absolute max. It's specifically for a Moviecam Compact. I wanted to make a 3 pin to 4 pin XLR adapter along with 3 pin XLR power extension cables. Hoping to use the 3 pin XLR's on a variety of cameras, if need be, and adding in the adapter when using the Moviecam.

[Phil Rhodes]

Eh, that's not that much. Decent mains cable would do it perfectly well. If you need all three pins populated, that's the way I'd do it. If not maybe look for some four-core stuff. You can usually get four-core and pair up the cores, and you end up with something that has a decent flexibility-to-capacity ratio.

 

I suspect a film camera may be a bit (a lot) hungrier than that on startup, and I guess the last thing you want to do is to have it get up to speed slower because it's pulling the voltage down due to losses in the cables.

 

P

[Ed Conley]

http://electronbeam.com/#customerdesignedcablewire

 

You have to call to get pricing though.