Making XLR Cables #1 - Solder a Cable and Tips (Public)
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
- In this video I solder an XLR cable and discuss various cable shield, the tool used, cable strippers, holding connectors while soldering, keeping the iron clean of solder and testing the cable.
Part 1 Making XLR Cables- • Making XLR Cables #1 -...
Part 2 Stripping and Shields - • Making XLR Cables #2 -...
Part 3 Quality and Faults - • Making XLR Cables #3 -...
Part 4 Making a Quad Cable - • Making Quality XLR Cab...
Part 5 Soldering Irons - • Making Quality XLR Cab...
Part 6 Gold or Silver Connectors - • Gold vs Silver (Nickel...
00:00 Intro
02:00 make an easy to build mic cable
03:22 memorizing the pin configuration
04:22 tinning a female XLR
04:35 stripping the jacket and prepping
07:38 tinning the wires
07:58 clearing solder from the iron
08:30 soldering a female XLR
10:00 looking at the connection and assemble female
11:02 soldering a male connector
15:00 cable testing
16:12 Summary and outro
The first part of a multi part series on mic cable termination. In this video I describe many of the aspects I will cover in future videos and show how to make an XLR cable
If you like this and other videos I do, please join this channel to get access to more videos, early access to videos as well as to be able to join my weekly zoom chats:
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Sorry, Dave, this is a great demonstration with lots of insight and solid tips but the only way to truly test an xlr cable build is a 2 hour soak test on stage with a drunk and (at least semi) ticked off Roger Daltrey. Thumbs up but I can only award this effort a 9 of 10. I don't make the rules.
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Roger throwing that mic round and round.. so much tape on that mic
👍 he is always so happy!
I'd be surprised if Daltrey has ever been drunk on stage. By all accounts he's a life long health nut and an absolute professional
And really nice guy
each time, you get to the bottom of it, and you enumerate every detail of the job! encore bravo
Thank you Laurent!
"Gravity is our friend"
You are the (great) Bob Ross of the professional audio.
I'm doing it for over 45 year now, The same way.
Still looking from begin to the end
Time is standing still if you explain...
Very peaceful.
Thank you.
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Like this version of Bob Ross?
www.banksy.co.uk/
This is ASMR to me :) damp sponge / damp rag is the way to go for longevity of your soldering tips, and clears so much more /ie.contaminants/ from the tip
I'm keeping your pliers plus rubber band trick never thought of that before
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I feel super confident soldering all kinds of cables and connectors but I am always super appreciative of pros showing me the basics. Thank you! ☺
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My takeaway, needle nosed pliers with a rubberband great idea
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This man is both a total nerd and a badass rocker at the same time. How is that possible?
Haaaa! Thank you!!
@@DaveRat I definitely meant it as a compliment, so I'm glad you got me. Great channel, by the way. Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge. ✌️
And taken as one! Thank you and welcome Mark!
Very many thanks for creating this helpful video Dave. I particularly liked your mnemonic 'Fridge Motor'. I'll be using that for sure...Fair play!
Awesome, happy it's helpful!
Definitely a much needed series - don't know why I've not spotted it before. Glad to see it's not just me using the soldering iron flick trick.
My 3 tips:
Put the boots on before anything else (I still forget)
For Neutrik connectors, just refer to the Neutrik assembly guides for cable prep, i.e., how far back to trim the cables.
Tin the tips then trim them - I find this gives a cleaner result.
Excellent how to video. I have the exact same meter that I bought from Home Depot at least 15 years ago and it still works just fine.
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these tips could only come from someone who has soldered thousands of XLR cables. great stuff
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I have a tremor in my hands... no one since high school electronics class ever wanted to be my solder buddy! Lol. But in my own madness my XLRs stand the test of time, though I won't ever win the speed award.
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Make a little jig... a M&F socket in a block of wood which you can insert your ends into. Clamp it to your bench. My hands also shake a little and I've found it helps me a lot.
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Dave, please make a video on how to properly make a balanced XLR splitter where the shielding isn’t compromised.
I will ponder that adventure
Great video Dave, the rubber band trick is genius. I used it on some hose clamp pliers and it clamps the outside of a plug perfectly. I’d suggest to a viewer that if they are going to transport flux on a hot iron tip (which burns off the flux) that a dab of flux on the terminals can make a big difference. Me, I just never transport solder on a hot iron, I apply it directly to the lug until it flows to the wire. Thanks again for the great video.
great video, I am lucky I had some good in-person teachers in the field over the years!
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Good video ! Thanks for this! This will help others !
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Small hobby vice for me - holding connectors, at a 45 degree angle - allows the cup solder to run in...and looping the cable overhead is a good way to keep things in line. Also use very small green heat shrink for the ground to prevent the ground from fraying... I’ve also taken a sharpie and drawn and numbered the “back” pin out configuration on my work station (right on the plywood). Always love your content Dave... I”m also a sound tools customer.
All good suggestions! Thank you thank thank you!
Nice to see we have pretty much the same way to solder xlr’s! Instead of your pliers, I use locking pliers. It’s a bit more cumbersome compared to your pliers.
And as a multimeter I still use my fathers Fluke 75! Over 35 years old and still going strong! 😃
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Glad I found this channel, absolute gem!
Thank you and welcome!
Love the hi tech stuff but Always great to have good fundamentals! lol ya don't need to know how to paint a room if your soldering joints suck!! thx again dave!!
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Brilliant, rubber band and long nose pliers! "Fridge" "motor" excellent. Someone needs to give the people at Neutric a blasting because the 1,2a d 3 are too small. It's the same on powercon connectors. You need eyes like an owl to see. Also, a lot of messing about happens in the middle of the night when its dark. "Fridge" "motor" its brilliant! Thanks Dave.
Right? I had to memorize it as I could never see the numbers. Also, memorizing eliminates the need for more than barely lit.
Dave Rat with the subtle flex, using a Metcal MX500 iron. :-)
Would have thought that stripper was the big flex here.
Love the metcal!!
That too!
Very valuable video. I'll be thinking about Fridge Motors all week! (Probably still going to mix up the pins at some point though)
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Always wanted to learn this
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Hello Dave. If you bang the iron on something to clean off the tip it can damage the iron. It's better to bang the iron on the table while holding the iron in your hand letting your hand hit the table instead of the iron itself. Works just as good. My favorite vice for holding stuff is the Panavise Mfr Part #:309. It doesn't fit in my tool pouch though so I use my Vice Grips. I just close the jaws and screw the adjustment in until it grips the part I'm soldering. Everyone has soldering skills they've learned over the years. Thanks for sharing yours.
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great tips and nice soldering skills :}
i'll share two tips too:
i've noticed that when the cables fail at the connectors because of too much tension/flexing/etc the ground wire is usually in a better shape than the rest.. i started making the ground wire the shortest of the 3 so it takes most of the stress/tension.
but not too short (>1/4inch) as it may damage the insulators it touches when it heats up during soldering.
on v delicate cables, heat sink pincers or tweezers are in order.
it's also wise to mechanically test the soldered joints (especially when fixing bad cables) before assembling everything together by yanking the cable while holding the connector.
Awesome!
Thanks for these great videos. Question: What temperature do you keep your soldering iron on when making cables?
Very friendly videos, greetings from Turkey...
Thank you! And oh would love to return to visit Turkey!
@@DaveRat We will be glad to see You in Turkey. You are loved here and we follow You My friend :)
Awesome! I hope to plan some travel for sound stuff and will post when I do. Maybe meet you and some sound friends there when I do
@@DaveRat We would be very pleased, I'm following ....
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thank you
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I have always struggled with holding the jack secure our wire with "helping hands". Cool truck with the rubber band and more mass of the pliers. That is a really simple solution.
I saw a video from Penn Elcom making a cable and their setup mounted the soldering iron downward verticality. I made that jig out of some scraps and found it to be much easier for my use. Now you hold the connector in one hand (on an old jack as a handle) and the wire in the other. Before, I always felt the wire twisted too much to ensure a good connection without over heating and melting the insulation. Yes it gets easier with practice but I hate the wire moving while it cools. You still tin the connections as you show but I feel I have much more control of how the wire sits in the cup without burning my fingers or something twisting free of the clamps. Also I think I use less solder because I have more rotational control where I heat the cups (but I probably still use way more than necessary - still practicing that).
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Tip: Hang wire from a boom stand and put connectors in a vise. Gravity will be your friend in multiple ways.
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Dave, thanks, good stuff as always. Can you post a link to the wire stripper? I like things that are easy as pie like that.
www.amazon.com/s?k=Self+adjusting+wire+stripper&ref=nb_sb_noss
8:10 Got you the "like" I dont like sponges. I think that the temperature shock will prematurely kill the bit. However I find that a well calloused thumb and index finger do a might fine job.
Tip: Neutrik XLRs (and all others I can remember) the ground pin on the female looks shorter than the other 2. This is because they use the same pins as the others but it is set so it will make contact first and is positioned nearer the front of the connector.
Tip: When attaching the wires, apply the iron from the open cup side of the pin, that way, provide tinning was quick and there is still active flux then there is no nee to tin the iron at that time, there is enough in the bucket.
Tip: Use the side of the end of the tip, not the very point, that way there is a larger contact area and better heat transfer.
Showing off: Having made of (probably) thousands of XLRs I have learnt to hold the plug body and either tinned cables or solder in one hand, so no need for the vise, pliers with rubber band or owt else. Plug goes between middle and ring, solder/cable between thumb and index. The "red" hot male pins certainly hone this technique!
Awesome!
Show off 😀 you’re right & you can use a pure copper scourer for scrubbing pots to clean your tip - the one handed xlr soldering technique I may have to borrow....
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@@BogdanWeiss If you can use chopsticks (with your non dominant hand), you can do this.
For master level of this technique, also black belt asbestos fingers then progress to phono aka RCA jacks. The ground connections is, err, challenging!
@@dougaltolan3017 Thanks for that tip, but I burned myself enough times replacing blown crossover components in loudspeakers never designed to be serviced - the kamikaze manoeuvres are great in emergencies & party tricks, once you practice 😀
I was taught to always heat the connector and not the solder. This means tinning the connector and wire, holding the iron on the back side of the solder cup, and when the solder inside melts, insert the wire and wait for the solder to flow onto the wire. Then remove the wire and wait for the solder to solidify before removing pressure on the wire. Also, you mentioned not pushing the wire all the way into the cup. Going all the way provides a stronger connection with less resistance. This may not be as important on xlr cables, but speaker cables need all the help they can get.
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@@DaveRat thanks, Dave. One other point that I forgot to mention. It doesn’t really apply to XLR unless you are connecting the shell terminal. Whenever possible, make a physical connection before soldering. That means twisting wire around a post or bending through a ring. Solder is not really a great physical connection, which is why the strain relief is so robust on most audio connectors. I have removed many cables from connectors just by peeling it back from the solder joint. No heat required, and the solder stays in place for the next wire. 🤓
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Joyous holiday season.🔊🎙🎚
Very cool. I was actually trained, tested and certified for mil spec soldering when I worked at Hughes Aircraft. The process used to solder "correctly" is quite rubust, tedious and overkill for our audio purposes.
The methods I am sharing are not the "right way" but rather, "a way" that I have found to be fast, reliable and easily repairable.
And adapting to suit various applications or preferences is awesome.
I still managed to fuck this up
Uh oh
Phew, I've been doing it right :)
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Hey Dave,
Have you tried neutriks crimp xlr connectors? PN would be nc3fxx-ha-bag and the male equivalent. I'm curious as to your thoughts on the tradeoffs given the repeatability and ease of use in the field for these and any differences when comparing to soldering.
Crimping is a good solution but does make inspection more difficult as a poorly crimped connection can look fine.
But repair ability is the driving factor behind soldering
Though crimped connectors can be soldered when they fail, the result is messy.
Also an XLR ncrimp tool is another thing to buy and carry as a soldering iron is needed in the kit either way.
Not against crimp but overall, I feel it adds complexity
Wow cool I just made some of my first xlr cables last week. I saved some old neutrik connectors that someone was gonna throw out! I really want to hear about that ground wire tinning, because well.. I fully tinned them :D and I hope it's not too dangerous for the cable! Thanks for the video!
👍 I have 5 vids in the series that is currently on the member side of my UA-cam, and will release about 1 per week to public
No worries, whenever they fail you will fix them and continue on. That’s the miracle of knowing how to build cables.
Btw, congrats on the salvaged connectors. All of this is how you save enough money to survive this business.
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@@Scodiddly Tanks! Yeah true! I have the pleasure to be working for complanies that have gear but its never bad to make and get your own. Kinda bad time for me to jump in to this business but I got some gigs for this summer which is great!
nice vid, wondering can I use this cable to connect my PA speaker to the mixer or is this just a microphone cable? thanks
Mic and line level. Not after the amplifier speaker cable.
Hi Dave, thanks for the great as always video! I noticed you did not connect connectors’ shells to the cable shield. Do you always leave shells “floating”? Are there situations when you would connect the shells to the cable shield and why and which ends (male, female, both)? Sorry if I’m inadvertently repeating someone else’s question that you already answered.. Thanks!
All good. For any cable plugged into a mic or plugged into rack gear or a DI, pin 1 is connected to the chassis and the chassis then grounds the shell.
When extending mic cables the ungrounded shells will allow a slight amount of cable to be unshielded but also if the shells touch something with a differing ground, the ungrounded shells will not make the whole system buzz due to the ground loop created.
Grounding the shells is fine too except occasionally some each great will have a pin 1 lift option that does not connect pin 1 to the gear chassis, if the shell is grounded, these lifts don't work.
All in all it almost never makes a difference but is a bit more work, so I don't ground the shells. I'd rather do less work and avoid the issue of shell touching metal as the extra grounding of the shell on extended cables has yet to be an issue for me.
Great, makes perfect sense, thanks again!
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I tighter overhead shot would be REALLY useful for videos such as this. It's very hard to see what you are doing
I will work on that. Still trying to ramp up my vid skills and thank you Sean!
Interesting video as always! Will definitely try the plier with rubber band trick! Many tips and tricks picked up along the way and I want to share two tricks I have found helpful:
- Neutrik usually have assembly instructions each of their connectors. It contains for example how much to take away of the outside and inside sleeving. I then draw two lines on a paper which have the measurement from the instruction, 18mm and 4mm respectively for XLR I believe and use that as a guide.
- The second trick I got from my electronics degree is to use tweezers. Though these could heat up and destroy the sleeving. A small counter to this is to put some heatstrink on the ends. Helps with directing the cable into the cups and keeps your fingers away from the heat.
A question I would like to see you touch on is the importance of torque on the boot of the connector that provide the strain relief. I have a hard time believing it should be torqued down as hard as possible as it almost eats down to the copper through the rubber sleeving. Interesting too see if the answer comes in a future video.
As usual a very good video from you, I am very passionate about this subject and was pleased I haven't been doing it wrong! Many thanks from Sweden.
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Hi Dave, can you share the brand and model of the cable strippers , I've been looking for a good tool to strip the jacket, thanks.
I think these are the current versions of the ones I have but there are many good ones out there
www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GRIP-2078300-Self-Adjusting-Stripper/dp/B000OQ21CA/ref=sr_1_2?crid=36QUO7LHNHV3A&dchild=1&keywords=irwin+cable+stripper&qid=1631473129&sprefix=Irwin+cable%2Caps%2C364&sr=8-2
@@DaveRat Thanks really appreciated , will order one to ry them out.
Awesome and let me know how well it works for ya
How fast is the intermittent detection on the sniffer sender?
Instantaneous, there is no processing, so what you see is what real-time
Draw a diagram (take a picture) of the solder end and label it for male and female. It's a lot easier!
Easier than what? Remembering?
Kind of like spelling certain words. Draw them out take a picture carry the piece of paper in your pocket and look at it whenever you need to spell versus remembering how to spell them because it's easier?
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Sorry, I am visually rather than language oriented; and I keep my diagrams in a master information binder/bible (audio/MIDI/DMX video etc).@@DaveRat
Rubber band on the long nose. Why didn't I ever think if that? Thanks!
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Could you link the site from where you get the xlr cable?
Hmmm, we buy 1000 foot rolls from several manufacturers in bulk. Not sure of the current vendor as we have been having trouble finding cable lately
What brand or model of cable do you use for touring and why?
Which cable? Cat5e? Mic? Speaker? Or?
Mic cable
I the jackets melting back are not Teflon(PTFE) they are maybe polyethylene(PE).
I used to thin the wires and afterwards cut them to length.
True, Teflon does not melt back at the temps we use, that said, Teflon is quite stiff, and tends to be more costly and is rarely used in flexible mic cables.
Though Teflon is excellent for high temp and abrasive applications. On the military stuff I have worked on, they used Teflon coated high silver content wires and very thin gauges to keep weight and size down, then run higher voltages and the wires got quite hot.
I guess the wasted heat and saved weight of thin wires was preferable.
@@DaveRat that's all true i don't think Teflon melts at all, at least not before it burns and the fumes are super toxic.
I have also heard Teflon is verry microphonic because of "triboelectric effects".
Speaking of it... your planing on making a video about microphonic (microphone) cables?
I've been pondering microphonics. Will do some testing to see if I can replicate issues well enough for a vid
I do believe Teflon melts but not with a flame, need very hot non flame heat. Maybe 350 degrees or so
Teflon does have a melting point: 327C
Excellent : we need to remove magic and belief from things and just keep facts. When a cable is good it is good contact, almost no rfi, (meaning you can't tune into FM with it) and it is incredible how many cables I came across that were not even good (even fancy expensive cables) never trust anything or anyone, go there and see and check and test. When you take a cable from a pile or a box you don't know how it was made or when and the life it has of beating tangling folding etc. Even the cables I labelled myself : I re-test before use, because we are never sure enough.
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I have seen people using solder paste on wires for strong grip is it true?
Most solder has the paste inside, flux core solder is actually a tube shaped solder with paste (flux) in the center so you usually do not need to add more flux. But with corroded connections or some difficult to solder metals flux is helpful. Just do not use acid based flux for electronics. Acis flux is good for radiators and plumbing.
@@DaveRat thanks dave
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I think someone really needs to come up with a reliable crimp-type solution for XLRs. My engineering brain says it absolutely could be done and be as reliable as soldered (if not more so). It would require a special tool but a crimp setup would be a huge timesaver.
👍 there are crimp XLR connectors out there, they just have not caught on. Perhaps serviceability? But crimped and molded XLRs are out there
@@DaveRat I think the market would want a crimp solution that doesn't make the plugs single-use. I need to look into this crimped XLRs and see how they work.
@@DaveRat The Neutrik crimp plugs look pretty well-designed. Interesting that they haven't caught on. Surely it's not the idea of having to have crimp pliers? Pretty sure any sound/audio guy worth the salt has a soldering and crimp tools. Intriguing.
One advantage of soldering is the solder adds some strength to the wire between the solder cup and the wire insulation. And up into the insulation while crimp, if not perfectly set, weakens the wire at the crimp. This can be mitigated with shrink, but if comparing a non shrink soldered connection to a crimped shrink connection that has reduced serviceability and is harder to inspect, yet both offer similar reliability, I can see the solder as preferable
@@DaveRat Totally agree, Dave. Lots of people I talk with who do wiring for other industries seem to think the prevalence of crimp connectors is due to inherently better reliability, when it's really driven by speed and ease of manufacturing that lowers costs. Crimps can be reliable, but it takes a lot of special ($$) tools and processes that don't make sense in many cases.
Soldering is still the standard for the most stringent reliability requirements (medical equip, NASA, military stuff, and Dave Rat).
Poorly done, either one will fail.
I'm always paranoid about cold solder joints so I pre-tin but then also add a bit of solder preform just prior to adding the wire (kind of like in this ua-cam.com/video/_GLeCt_u3U8/v-deo.html)
like me you have ancient needle nose pliers because the current ones are all made like crap no matter what brand.
I do like the old carbon steel tools. For good new ones, check out Wiha or Wera (knipex).
They make great tools. Both companies come from the same town in Germany and it's old school quality and some modern technology on some as well
@@DaveRat thanks man! appreciate the vids.
Awesome and thank you!
What type of solder do you use?
Dang. This is like the complete opposite of how I build cables, and yet both of us have built many many cables. Hmmmm...
Well, there are many ways and each have their assets and issues. For example, shrink increases build time, does not necessarily add lifespan and makes visual inspections for faults challenging. And then cutting shrink to see, means a cable rebuild to put shrink back on.
I do go over some other builds in future vids.
@@DaveRat So for instance I always tin the leads before trimming. And I attach the smaller leads to the connector before the bigger ones.
Hmmm, I don't see any real difference or advantage to the order or when to trim, all good.
@@DaveRat I probably started it doing that way when I got into smaller connectors like TA4F and such.
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Oof. That really did not rub me the right way.
Always make sure that the ground is shorter, so if the worst should happen and nothing holds on to the sleeve and the cable is pulled, that it’s the ground that takes all the force. Why? The ground has a lot more copper than the 2 signal wires and can withstand more force. Usually the signal wires are a bit flimsy.
Why no heat-shrink-tubing or rubber-tubes to create a near perfect isolated connection of the 3 connectors?
So many great videos, but this one i don’t agree with. Sorry. That is china-cables right there. Again, sorry.
Appreciate the view and there is more to it that purely ground shorter and use shrink.
Using the right technique for the desired application and avoiding wasted time and unneeded complexities is important.
4 more videos in the series coming that will cover ground wire lengths and when shrink is useful and when a waste of time.
You've only read the first chapter of the book. Loads more fun to have
@@DaveRat awesome. Lovin’ it!
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I agree. I'd also apply solder directly to the joint, that way the flux doesn't boil off on the iron before it's applied to re-melt the conductors to the solder bucket. But I think this video wasn't really intended for us. I personally don't tin the solder buckets either. Whilst it's not how I'd do it, I do think it covers the basics, contains some good tips and is a reliable method that a beginner could use to make decent leads up. I've seen some pretty horrific attempts (even pre-made).
Yes, this first vid was quick and easy XLR. I have found that running the cups, if ya don't linger, leaves plenty of flux. Tinned to tinned connections don't really need much if any flux. I have also found that with tinned cups, there is a quicker thermal connection of the iron and allows slightly reduced time applying heat to the wire/cup combo.
For most applications and wire types, it doesn't matter, but when soldering extremely temp sensitive wire, the tin to tin can minimize temp issues.
All that said, there is no right way, just many ways with various assets and issues.
XLR stands for X-tra LaRge pretty sure...
Hmmm, The original Cannon XLR specs are findable w a search and will answer that for sure
If you’ve spent much time soldering little wireless mic connectors then the old XLR sure does look big!
Agreed!
NO GOOD AT ALL SORRY !
It's ok, no need to be sorry. Perhaps a focus on learning and understanding will help you see more clearly.
Sorry you are not an audio professionnal cabler !!! Your technique is not OK !!!
Ha and yes! And from what platform of years of experience and long time frames of consistent and renown success do you preach your negative opinions?
NEVER carry solder to the joint on the iron, best way to get dry joints particularly if you use lead free. Sorry but could do much better this is teaching bad habits.
Merging two tinned ends with an iron is not an issue.