I was fixing a mutilated cable for a friend's portable music/video player
with a weird connector at the device end.

So I figured if I could get the connector shell open, I'd just use a new USB
cable to replace the original cable which had a USB connector at the other
end. The shell opened with an appropriate amount of pressure applied with a
ChannelLock plier (with thick tape applied to the jaws).

After preparing the end with shrink tubing and splaying the conductors so
they would be able to connect to the ridiculously small conacts inside the
connector, I began to tin the leads with solder, but the shield braid wire
would not tin.

With a magnifier, there was no visible pink copper color at the ends of the
freshly cut strands.

I don't know where the USB cable came from, but the wrapper and a sticker on
the cable are marked 14G000505709. The sticker also includes: ROHS
Compliant.

The cable jacket is printed with AWM E101344 style 2725 60*C 30V Space
Shuttle-D USB Revision 2.0.

--
Cheers,
WB
..............

Wild_Bill wrote in message
...
I was fixing a mutilated cable for a friend's portable music/video player
with a weird connector at the device end.

So I figured if I could get the connector shell open, I'd just use a new
USB
cable to replace the original cable which had a USB connector at the other
end. The shell opened with an appropriate amount of pressure applied with
a
ChannelLock plier (with thick tape applied to the jaws).

After preparing the end with shrink tubing and splaying the conductors so
they would be able to connect to the ridiculously small conacts inside the
connector, I began to tin the leads with solder, but the shield braid wire
would not tin.

With a magnifier, there was no visible pink copper color at the ends of
the
freshly cut strands.

I don't know where the USB cable came from, but the wrapper and a sticker
on
the cable are marked 14G000505709. The sticker also includes: ROHS
Compliant.

The cable jacket is printed with AWM E101344 style 2725 60*C 30V Space
Shuttle-D USB Revision 2.0.

--
Cheers,
WB
.............



You can get aluminium solder but beware the flux is extremely corrosive. Use
an old soldering iron tip to use it.


--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm

On Mon, 1 Feb 2010 05:29:48 -0500, "Wild_Bill"
wrote:

I was fixing a mutilated cable for a friend's portable music/video player
with a weird connector at the device end.

After preparing the end with shrink tubing and splaying the conductors so
they would be able to connect to the ridiculously small conacts inside the
connector, I began to tin the leads with solder, but the shield braid wire
would not tin.

Wrap & twist some bare copper wire around the braid :-)


--
met vriendelijke groet,
Gerard Bok

Thanks for your reply. Adding a copper extension was a consideration, but
there is too little space available.

I'll just use a cable with a real tinned copper shield.

--
Cheers,
WB
..............


"Gerard Bok" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 1 Feb 2010 05:29:48 -0500, "Wild_Bill"
wrote:

I was fixing a mutilated cable for a friend's portable music/video player
with a weird connector at the device end.

After preparing the end with shrink tubing and splaying the conductors so
they would be able to connect to the ridiculously small conacts inside the
connector, I began to tin the leads with solder, but the shield braid wire
would not tin.

Wrap & twist some bare copper wire around the braid :-)


--
met vriendelijke groet,
Gerard Bok

Thanks for your reply. You're correct about aluminum (or aluminium, some
places) solders and fluxes.

I think finding a copper braid shielded cable should be the solution.

How hard could that be? (as they often say on Top Gear).

--
Cheers,
WB
..............


"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Wild_Bill wrote in message
...
I was fixing a mutilated cable for a friend's portable music/video player
with a weird connector at the device end.

After preparing the end with shrink tubing and splaying the conductors so
they would be able to connect to the ridiculously small conacts inside
the
connector, I began to tin the leads with solder, but the shield braid
wire
would not tin.

With a magnifier, there was no visible pink copper color at the ends of
the
freshly cut strands.

--
Cheers,
WB
.............




You can get aluminium solder but beware the flux is extremely corrosive.
Use
an old soldering iron tip to use it.


--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm