Astro-Physics keypad coil-cord

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Date: 11 Sep 2006 15:21:58
From: Chuck Olson
Subject: Astro-Physics keypad coil-cord

I've had my 900GTO mount for about 5 years, now, when I noticed the jacket
of the coil-cord had cracked and separated both at the keypad end and the
connector end that plugs into the control box on the mount. I would say this
coil cord is its own worst enemy. Just the weight of the coil section
dangling from the strain reliefs is enough to cause this jacket failure. I
fortunately caught it before any wires were broken, so the cord never failed
electrically, but I was faced with the need to replace the cable for
continued use of the mount. I searched for a price on AP's website, but to
no avail. Finally on the 4th working day after sending an email, I received
an answer - - $62.00 for a new cable. Okay, that's not too bad, but I was
also hoping they had a shorter, non coil type - - but no, they don't.

I'm an inveterate flea market buff, so I began to look around for a nice
limber cable that might contain at least 6 wires. By the way, two of the
six wires (red, black) are shorted together at the connector end of the coil
cord and insulated from any other contact, and the only reason I can think
of for this is they may be spares, so a 4-wire cable may also be useable.
However, I found an old QuickShot joystick (commonly used for Flight
Simulator) that plugs into a PC game port and might contain lots of wires,
so I bought it for $1. When I got it home I was elated to find it had
exactly the 6 wires needed. Then I had to decide what to use for a connector
inside the keypad. The 0.1" spacing header in the board is compatible with
any number of common receptacles available from industrial electronics
supply places like HSC Electronics in Santa Clara, CA, so that was no
problem. But I wanted to keep as much of the rubber anchor and strain relief
of the original cord as possible. I cut away the small rubber strain relief
from the jacket on the joystick cord and fed its long wires and cable
through the original rubber anchor and strain relief, and with the help of a
little KY lubricant, I was able to push the new cable all the way through to
where I could fasten a Ty-Rap to the cable on the inside of the anchor
block. At the other end I used two layers of heat-shrink tubing to build out
the cable diameter to that required by the connector clamp, and soldered in
the 4 wires.

The new cable is about 46" long. I saw another QuickShot joystick that was
switchable for use on either Apple or PC, and it had a 60" cable, so it
would also be useful. The loss of the coil feature is somewhat restricting,
but I feel this straight cable will last a bit longer while serving
predominant close-to-mount needs for control and readout.

Date: 11 Sep 2006 23:49:29
From: Richard Adams
Subject: Re: Astro-Physics keypad coil-cord

Chuck Olson wrote:
> I've had my 900GTO mount for about 5 years, now, when I noticed the jacket
> of the coil-cord had cracked and separated both at the keypad end and the
> connector end that plugs into the control box on the mount. I would say this
> coil cord is its own worst enemy. Just the weight of the coil section
> dangling from the strain reliefs is enough to cause this jacket failure. I
> fortunately caught it before any wires were broken, so the cord never failed
> electrically, but I was faced with the need to replace the cable for
> continued use of the mount. I searched for a price on AP's website, but to
> no avail. Finally on the 4th working day after sending an email, I received
> an answer - - $62.00 for a new cable. Okay, that's not too bad, but I was
> also hoping they had a shorter, non coil type - - but no, they don't.
>
> I'm an inveterate flea market buff, so I began to look around for a nice
> limber cable that might contain at least 6 wires. By the way, two of the
> six wires (red, black) are shorted together at the connector end of the coil
> cord and insulated from any other contact, and the only reason I can think
> of for this is they may be spares, so a 4-wire cable may also be useable.
> However, I found an old QuickShot joystick (commonly used for Flight
> Simulator) that plugs into a PC game port and might contain lots of wires,
> so I bought it for $1. When I got it home I was elated to find it had
> exactly the 6 wires needed. Then I had to decide what to use for a connector
> inside the keypad. The 0.1" spacing header in the board is compatible with
> any number of common receptacles available from industrial electronics
> supply places like HSC Electronics in Santa Clara, CA, so that was no
> problem. But I wanted to keep as much of the rubber anchor and strain relief
> of the original cord as possible. I cut away the small rubber strain relief
> from the jacket on the joystick cord and fed its long wires and cable
> through the original rubber anchor and strain relief, and with the help of a
> little KY lubricant, I was able to push the new cable all the way through to
> where I could fasten a Ty-Rap to the cable on the inside of the anchor
> block. At the other end I used two layers of heat-shrink tubing to build out
> the cable diameter to that required by the connector clamp, and soldered in
> the 4 wires.
>
> The new cable is about 46" long. I saw another QuickShot joystick that was
> switchable for use on either Apple or PC, and it had a 60" cable, so it
> would also be useful. The loss of the coil feature is somewhat restricting,
> but I feel this straight cable will last a bit longer while serving
> predominant close-to-mount needs for control and readout.
>
>

I don't know enough about your set-up, but for the Autostar cable on a
Meade, which uses IIRC RT11 connectors and straight through wires a
network cable did the job for mine and got rid of that stupid heavy
coiled cord. The new cable is flat and light and bundles up quick for
stowing.

Date: 11 Sep 2006 20:30:28
From: rat ~( );>
Subject: Re: Astro-Physics keypad coil-cord