Heat Shrink After the Connector

[bishopthomas]

My 52 channel snake is complete but I could really use some more fan tail length. Is there anything I can do now that the XLR's are on or will I have to live with my hard lesson learned?

[Jim vanBergen]

Lesson learned.

My $0.02: Don't extend them unless you go to an industrial terminal block, patch bay, or connector-to-connector, which are all added failure points.

Better to leave it as is.

[bishopthomas]

Oh well, I'll live with it. If I find I need more length then I will resolder it. After soldering these multipins XLR's almost seem too easy.

[Jim vanBergen]

How long did you make the tail? 3'? 4'?
I have some snake that are only 3' (too short for big desks) and some 6' (WAY too much for small desks)

[LX3]

Hmm... I take it you mean the tails themselves need to be longer? So if you could remove more of the snake's outer jacket, you'd have longer tails?

What diameter has your snake (the jacketed part) come out at? Are the cores individually jacketed? (If not, I suspect you are indeed stuck)

If you're using adhesive-lined heatshrink, I think it normally has a higher than 2:1 shrink ratio.... which means you might be able to take large-diameter un-shrunk H/S, feed each XLR thru it one at a time, and hopefully there'd still be enough space to get the last plug thru even after the other 51 are through there. But it all depends if you get lucky with the un-shrunk diameter of the appropriate h/s. I mean, if unshrunk it's only 10mm or so larger than the snake outer jacket, it's not going to work out.

I would test everything before cutting anything!

I managed to do this once to replace the h/s on a pre-made 28-channel snake - the manufacturer hadn't used adhesive lined h/s, and it just slipped off.

Am I making any sense at all?

[bishopthomas]

I think it's going to be fine. This is the FOH split trunk and is only 10 feet long. The tail only has to be long enough to stretch the distance of a 52 channel snake box and I think it will do that. I just don't want to get on a job where I have to slice up the outer insulation in order to get that spread. I'll call it finished for now and take it from there.

LX3 - Yes, you are correct, longer tails. Each shielded pair has the standard foil wrap around it, so as I cut the snake's outer jacket that foil is exposed. I thought about trying a 3:1 heat shrink, just don't have any on hand at the moment. Even with a larger diameter I don't think it will fit over the XLR connector. It's really no big deal. I thought that maybe there would be some kind of adhesive heat shrink that wrapped instead of being a tube (or any other ideas).

[Remoteness]

Tommy baby, I just odered some Alpha FIT421 which is 4:1 heat shrinkable tubing which can be used for that exact purpose.

I got it in black in various sizes...

Call me to discuss this further if applicable.

[nathanvacha]

they don't make clear heatshrink out there, do they?

[bishopthomas]

Yes, they do. I need to place an order for some, actually. That way I can number my channels then heatshrink over it.

[nathanvacha]

exactly what i was thinking. lemme know where you get it.

[noamraz]

I've just figured out that i forgot to place the Shrinks on the TRS multicable i did soldered yesterday..

[bishopthomas]

Here's what I bought:

Heat Shrink

If you're not into eBay then do a Google search. You'll have plenty of options.

[Jim vanBergen]

I buy clear, yellow, blue, red and black from Mouser in many sizes.

FWIW.