Got a New Case!

[Britton30]

That is really pro quality work Jeannie, it looks like a factory cable.
How do you strip insulation mid-wire so accurately and neatly? I usually end up cutting one or more of the strands.

Here's another question in picture form, easier than writing it.



These pictures are excellent for size, lots of detail.

I had an epiphany seeing this too. I had never thought there were only 5 wires coming out of the PSU for SATA power. The PSU end is a 6-pin ATX so I just assumed 6 wires out of it. (I had to go check mine, lol.)

 

[ZaLiTH]

I used one of the cute, little vice grips I recently bought on a day trip to hold the punch-down connector so it wouldn't rock on my while punching down the wire.

[snip]

That is a pretty cute little vice grip there.. Especially considering the size of the connector it's holding! Useful things hey..

This is actually pretty inspirational and very informative, I suspect I may end up doing something similar to my new build. I love the drive layout options in the 750D, but I get the feeling whichever PSU I end up with will give me too much "cable" between the series of SATA power connectors. Definitely bookmarking that post permalink.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

That is really pro quality work Jeannie, it looks like a factory cable...

Thanks!

...How do you strip insulation mid-wire so accurately and neatly? I usually end up cutting one or more of the strands...

I take a sharp knife, place it down on the insulation where I want to cut it, then roll the wire over my desk, letting the knife roll over it, until the insulation is cut to the wire. I do the same for the second cut, then carefully slice and peel away the insulation between the cuts. The trick is to use a really sharp knife so the insulation will easily cut without so much pressure, you also accidentally cut the strands. I find that technique also does a better job of stripping the ends of wire better than the stripper on my crimper because it doesn't stretch the remaining insulation over the conductor I just stripped.

...Here's another question in picture form, easier than writing it.

View attachment 321550...

I'll answer that with another picture. The arrow points at the "missing" wire.



SATA power cables have five wires (as you mention you just discovered): one +3.3v, one +5v, one+12v, and two grounds. A four pin Molex has the same as the SATA power connector except the 3.3v is missing. Once I had the SATA and PSU connectors sorted out, it was fairly easy to sort out which was the +3.3v lead and snip the little bugger off. I didn't have any cap heat shrink sleeves handy so I just took a tiny heat shrink sleeve that was a bit longer than the remaining stub of the 3.3v lead, shrunk it to the stub, then put some Krazyglue inside the end and "squoze" it shut with a pair of pliers until the glue cured. I probably didn't need to worry about the tiny bit of conductor showing but...have I ever mentioned how anal I am?

...These pictures are excellent for size, lots of detail. ...

Thanks. I'll keep doing them that way

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I used one of the cute, little vise grips I recently bought on a day trip to hold the punch-down connector so it wouldn't rock on my while punching down the wire.

[snip]

That is a pretty cute little vice grip there.. Especially considering the size of the connector it's holding! Useful things hey..

This is actually pretty inspirational and very informative, I suspect I may end up doing something similar to my new build. I love the drive layout options in the 750D, but I get the feeling whichever PSU I end up with will give me too much "cable" between the series of SATA power connectors. Definitely bookmarking that post permalink.

Thanks! A friend and I recently took a day trip up to Crown King, AZ. We saw the little vise grips at the little general store up there (the whole town is tiny, nestled up in the pines) and got a good laugh out of them. Being the tool whore that I am, I just had to get one. I started to get just one and a five incher they also had (the little one is a four inch) but, by the time we went to check out, I had snagged a second four incher as well.

I certainly don't regret that impulse purchase. I'm surprised at how much use I've gotten from the four inchers already. I needed to shorten a sheet metal screw to make room for installing and removing a fan wire from a clip. I didn't have a good enough grip on the screw using needle nose pliers (old age sucks) so I could take a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to it so I tried one of the tiny vise grips. It was the perfect width and held the screw securely while I cut it off.

When using it to hold SATA punch-down connectors, I used only enough pressure to keep the vise grips closed to avoid cracking the connector.

All stock PSU SATA power cables have way too much cable between the connectors. They have to because different cases use different HDD spacing although they do get rather carried away with the amount of space they use to make sure there is enough. It just looks sloppy and tucking the extra cable out of the way is usually problematic. That's one reason why I make custom cables.

 

[ZaLiTH]

All stock PSU SATA power cables have way too much cable between the connectors. They have to because different cases use different HDD spacing although they do get rather carried away with the amount of space they use to make sure there is enough. It just looks sloppy and tucking the extra cable out of the way is usually problematic. That's one reason why I make custom cables.

I have major problems with that at the moment in my current rig.. Between that and the data cables, the cable management side of my 600T really doesn't look very well "managed".

Ill just have to sort that out one day when I have the time.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I hear you. I'm dreading dealing with the SATA data cables since there really isn't anywhere to neatly route them nor to tuck any excess length. I saw an article on how to make custom length SATA data cables using a certain brand of cable but that won't help me any with the breakout cables from my HBA card, the cable coming from the top swap bay, or the cable coming from the e-SATA port on the lower swap bay (in fact, I'll have to use a SATA cable coupler for that one since it goes to the HBA card and the only way to connect to it will be via a breakout cable).

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Maybe you can mod or just use these bad boys?

SILVERSTONE CP11B-300 Ultra Thin Lateral 90 Degree Angled SATA 6G Cables with Custom Low-Profile Connectors, 300MM - Newegg.com

Silverstone CP11 11.81" Ultra Thin Lateral 90 Degree Angled SATA 6G Cables with Custom Low-Profile Connectors M-M - Newegg.com

I used the blue ones and they worked like a charm and virtually disappeared in my rig.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Maybe you can mod or just use these bad boys?

SILVERSTONE CP11B-300 Ultra Thin Lateral 90 Degree Angled SATA 6G Cables with Custom Low-Profile Connectors, 300MM - Newegg.com

Silverstone CP11 11.81" Ultra Thin Lateral 90 Degree Angled SATA 6G Cables with Custom Low-Profile Connectors M-M - Newegg.com

I used the blue ones and they worked like a charm and virtually disappeared in my rig.

Thanks for the links; I have them bookmarked for future reference. The problem I'm facing with the SATA data cables isn't the diameter of the cable or the angle of the connectors but, rather, the length of the cables. I have time to figure out a solution since I won't make the swap until late this month or early next month. Even then, I can use temporary cables just to get the machine up and running.

 

[Layback Bear]

Jeannie it's all your fault.
I just ordered a bunch of cable/harness wrapping stuff from Performance PC to do all my harness over. I will take about 10 days to get them.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Jeannie it's all your fault.
I just ordered a bunch of cable/harness wrapping stuff from Performance PC to do all my harness over. I will take about 10 days to get them.

I’m sorry!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, I'm back to try to corrupt more of you with an even simpler cable. This is the one to power the sound card and, except for possible the SATA data cables, should be the last of the cables.

This time, I started with crimping the pins on the PSU end of the cable. I know I'm not a great photographer but how the big fat holy hairy heck did even I get three pins fairly well focused but the fourth so way out of focus?





The connector on the left is the one I just poked the pinned wires into. The one on the right is on the stock four pin Molex cable that came with the PSU.



Here, I'm starting to slip the sleeve onto the cable before putting the connector on the other end. the sleeve is a bit on the small size but I ran out of the correct size. One of the beauties of this brand of sleeving is it is so expandable.



This is a closer view. Before slipping the sleeve on, I used dots of Krazyglue roughly every couple of inches to keep the wires bundled and parallel.



Here is the finished cable. Kinda anticlimactic.



The cable has been more or less installed in this shot inside the case. The white arrows point to the cable itself. The blue (purple, whatever) arrow points at the front panel audio connector cable. That will be tied to the sound card power cable once I get the innards of my current rig transferred to this one.



And here is the cable as seen from the backside.



Hopefully, this is the last cable and the last major mod. I won't be doing much more for a couple of weeks when I will have more time to do the swap.

 

[Britton30]

Thanks Jeannie, I saw the tiny wire cut-off after I made the picture, very smart still. How in the wide world of sports do you keep the different volt wires sorted since you use black wires?

I think I can see a complete rebuild in Jack's future.

I've used Vise Grips of varying sizes for holding wires for soldering too, cuts way down on the burns. I have even used on pair to hold another to get the work in a better position.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks Jeannie, I saw the tiny wire cut-off after I made the picture, very smart still. How in the wide world of sports do you keep the different volt wires sorted since you use black wires?...

It makes a difference which wire goes where? Really? Yikes!

All seriousness aside, I tag the wires with little pieces of tape. I also use an antique Micronta Digital multimeter to check my work (hey, it still works). I have small bare wires taped to the probes so they will fit in the tiny connectors. I also use the original cables as a pattern to determine which wire goes where and to check my work.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I was browsing through Amazon the other day and found something that is the solution for a problem I've been wrestling with in the back of my mind (i.e. the third brain cell). The plastic HDD trays have a tendency to sag over time. The trays in the display model at my friendly, neighborhood Fry's have sagged at least half an inch in the center. Putting a HDD in the tray will prevent most of that sag (I'll show what will prevent the rest in a bit) because it kinda sorta bridges the width of the tray. However, a 2.5" HDD or SSD gets screwed to the bottom of the tray. Although 2.5" drives get placed where the connectors will be in the same place as the connectors of a 3.5" HDD, they don't bridge the width of the tray and it could still sag. Even a small amount of sag could allow the tray to rattle in the cage and make it harder to get the connectors align. I thought of putting a plate under a 2.5" drive to reinforce the tray but then the connectors wouldn't properly align.

The gizmo on the left is designed for use in drive trays, such as the one from my case on the right, to solve that very problem. you can see the holes on the bottom of the tray for mounting 2.5" drives.





This is what the gizmo looks like installed in the tray





Notice in this shot that the gizmo on the left puts the connectors in the same place as the 3.5" drive in the tray on the right.



Here is where I tell you how to get the rest of the sag out. Although the HDD trays are supposed to be tool free, I found, even after shimming the cages, the trays and drives could still rattle a bit but, if I installed 6-32 x 1/4" screws in the sides where the arrows point, all the slack was taken up and the HDDs and trays felt rock solid in the cages. Holes apparently were provided to allow screwing a screw into the middle hole on each side of the HDD. The gizmo has the exact same screw pattern on the sides and bottom of the tray part so it will install wherever a 3.5" drive will.



The only downside of the gizmo is one has to remove it from the tray to be able to install a 2.5" drive in it. Methinks I can live with that. Since it came from an Amazon Marketplace vendor that apparently is a closeout buyer and reseller, the supply will probably dry up before long so I just ordered four more for future use.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Got the filter mesh in the PSU filter replaced.

Before.



The arrow shows the narrow raised ridge that the mesh was fastened to. Apparently, "they" melted the plastic and pressed the mesh into it.



After removing the mesh.



And here we have the final results. It looks as rough as a rasp because I had the darnedest getting the glue on just the raised ridge and getting the mesh to stay down on the top of the ridge until the glue set.



At least the flip side looks better. Not that it matters since it's on the bottom of the case where no one will see it. At least it will stop more dust.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Great updates Jeannie. Regarding the focus issue on the connectors you can just see that the third connector is just beginning to become out and the additional distance to the forth placed that one out of focus. Likely you shot at just an angle in or out of close up mode.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Alan!

You may be right about the angle thing, too. It's maddening (but then, I'm already mad as a hatter; I had to be to undertake this project) but not enough to lose sleep overzzzzzzzz.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I just love that you measure out to the closest mm all these cable paths and go to all this extra effort as it does show in the finished product. We're all loving your nuttiness.....is that even a word or just a state of mind?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

What can I say? I'm OCD. And yes, nuttiness is a word and a state of mind, not to mention a flavor adjective.

 

[NoN]

Nice job and efforts made on wiring and cable managements...Lady.

I'm using an appropriate wire stripper for those AWG wires to cut and pull-out wrapped plastic before mounting them to the electrical terminal crimp pin.

But as for terminal crimp i've only a simple one (flat & long nose for jewellery) to flatten the crimps. It does the job holding but not as well rounded properly to snap the wires, it just flatten them (might slip out crimp if pull off too hard out the headers).

I saw some specially made Crimping Tool for electronics, 16 to 28AWG wires but quite expensive ones around here and the regular one i own is just too big for those little crimp pins and very unprecise.

As for my 4 pin Molex and 3 pin headers extension & little modd, to flatten is alright but for a PSU modding i would like it more well done.

The last one it did sleeved entirely was for a "starter" cold cathode, which came w/those ugly wire colors.

Oh Well...might invest on a proper one 'cause you gave me the envy to redo my PSU wiring. Mine is pretty made of colored Awg wires and the braided sleeves are also quite made of differents colors.

Very addictive...world of computing i recon!