Cable End Gender?

dbbubba · 4th April 2007

The "cable rolling" post was interesting, but how many of you know that cables (especialy multi conductor cable) has a "gender" or a male and female end?

I thought my friend was crazy, but cable like 5 pair SJ, SJO (power feeder, speaker cable and/or lighting stuff) actually is manufactured with a male and female end!
It lines up with the holes or connectors on the plug/receptacle.
If you do it correctly, you don't have to cross the wires at either end.
This seems liike splitting hairs, but when you make cables with more than four pairs it really helps the construction process.
Building a 3 phase 5/10 cable is much easier once you realize this.

This has caused some arguments and statements like "BULLSH*T!" on many occasion.
Hell! Even I thought he was crazy until I made thirty two speaker cables for our Nexo rig.
Even four pair SJO used for speaker cables is gendered!

I thought that this would stir things up.

Jeff Goodman · 4th April 2007

All cable ends have a gender.

Generally, male = output, female = input. Think of a microphone.

The exception that I have seen is the multiphase power cables in live PA rigs. Would you want live dc exposed on the bare pins of a male connector, carrying some huge amout of current ready to kill anything it touches?

Jeff

Jim vanBergen · 4th April 2007

It gets fun when you are running multiple Cat5, & Video multicore. How about the Neutrik powercon? Both ends are male, and have female panelmount AND cablemount counterparts... but we still call them male and female for input and pass-thru/output.

max cooper · 4th April 2007

I think he means that the cable, before termination has an order to which the individual strands come out of the jacket that lends itself to terminating one end to the male and one end to the female so you don't end up having to flip and cross over when you go to solder the strands to the solder cups inside the plug.

Or I could be wrong.

Duardo · 4th April 2007

Quote:

All cable ends have a gender.

Generally, male = output, female = input. Think of a microphone.

Don't think of a microphone, think of where babies come from...

celticrogues · 4th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duardo

Don't think of a microphone, think of where babies come from...

I don't get it...
What does this have to do with a stork?

Mike

woomanmoomin · 4th April 2007

Babies come from Wal-Mart. I thought everyone knew that.

To hell with all the techie info. I just get hot even looking at all this female-socket stuff.

You hot little Mogami biatch.

Actually I've always found it kind of disturbing that even cables have sexes. (I prefer not to use the word 'gender' here because as far as I can tell, that's not much more than a factitious, feminist-intellectual invention that came along in the wake of all that bra-burning roleplaying cr@p a lot of people seemed to view as female emancipation or something.) It smells to me of this masculine drive to impose order on everything and, in so doing, supposedly conquer it.

Jim vanBergen · 5th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by celticrogues

What does this have to do with a stork?

Mike

I definitely didn't bang a STORK!

LOL

dbbubba · 5th April 2007

Well, maybe it's a Texas thing (thang?) because ONLY Max understood what I meant!

I meant the individual wires in the jacket.
The individual conductors.
THE ENDS OF BARE CABLE HAVE A GENDER.

Of course the ends of the cables with the connectors attatched have a gender.
(I wonder about some people on this forum sometimes.)

BTW, you have to be really dumb to manage to touch the connectors of electrical feeder cables or the connectors.
It is pretty well protected from stray fingers and stuff.
Besides, with show power it is common practice to have all of the connections made and secured BEFORE you energize the rig.
About all you can do wit feeder is have a fool disconnect a leg.
The female connector ALWAYS has the power or electricity "in it."
The male is connected to or comes from the device and never has voltage on it.

Interestibgly, audio is oposite with the important stuff (the signal) flowing from or present at the male connector.

It is always a brain bender for me to hook up intelligent lighting cabling because it is opposite of audio. DMX uses five pin XLR, but High End's older stuff uses 3 pin mic cables , BUT IT IS RUN BACKWARDS TO AUDIO. I have to deal with both and I always have to stop and think about it! the audio method is SO ingrained in my mind!

See? No one did realize that BARE cable has a gender, too!
(I got a million of 'em!)

4th April 2007	#1
dbbubba Banned Joined: Sep 2005 Posts: 7,099 Thread Starter	Cable End Gender? The "cable rolling" post was interesting, but how many of you know that cables (especialy multi conductor cable) has a "gender" or a male and female end? I thought my friend was crazy, but cable like 5 pair SJ, SJO (power feeder, speaker cable and/or lighting stuff) actually is manufactured with a male and female end! It lines up with the holes or connectors on the plug/receptacle. If you do it correctly, you don't have to cross the wires at either end. This seems liike splitting hairs, but when you make cables with more than four pairs it really helps the construction process. Building a 3 phase 5/10 cable is much easier once you realize this. This has caused some arguments and statements like "BULLSH*T!" on many occasion. Hell! Even I thought he was crazy until I made thirty two speaker cables for our Nexo rig. Even four pair SJO used for speaker cables is gendered! I thought that this would stir things up.

4th April 2007	#2
Jeff Goodman Gear maniac Joined: Aug 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 244	All cable ends have a gender. Generally, male = output, female = input. Think of a microphone. The exception that I have seen is the multiphase power cables in live PA rigs. Would you want live dc exposed on the bare pins of a male connector, carrying some huge amout of current ready to kill anything it touches? Jeff __________________ Siento, no puedo mezclar su canción ahora mismo, los glotones han comido mis yemas del dedo.

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4th April 2007	#3
Jim vanBergen Lives for gear Joined: Apr 2005 Location: New York Friggin' City Posts: 2,562	It gets fun when you are running multiple Cat5, & Video multicore. How about the Neutrik powercon? Both ends are male, and have female panelmount AND cablemount counterparts... but we still call them male and female for input and pass-thru/output.

4th April 2007	#4
max cooper Lives for gear Joined: Aug 2004 Location: tx Posts: 8,802	I think he means that the cable, before termination has an order to which the individual strands come out of the jacket that lends itself to terminating one end to the male and one end to the female so you don't end up having to flip and cross over when you go to solder the strands to the solder cups inside the plug. Or I could be wrong.

4th April 2007	#7
woomanmoomin Lives for gear Joined: Jan 2007 Location: London, England Posts: 1,021	Babies come from Wal-Mart. I thought everyone knew that. To hell with all the techie info. I just get hot even looking at all this female-socket stuff. You hot little Mogami biatch. Actually I've always found it kind of disturbing that even cables have sexes. (I prefer not to use the word 'gender' here because as far as I can tell, that's not much more than a factitious, feminist-intellectual invention that came along in the wake of all that bra-burning roleplaying cr@p a lot of people seemed to view as female emancipation or something.) It smells to me of this masculine drive to impose order on everything and, in so doing, supposedly conquer it.

5th April 2007	#9
dbbubba Banned Joined: Sep 2005 Posts: 7,099 Thread Starter	Well, maybe it's a Texas thing (thang?) because ONLY Max understood what I meant! I meant the individual wires in the jacket. The individual conductors. THE ENDS OF BARE CABLE HAVE A GENDER. Of course the ends of the cables with the connectors attatched have a gender. (I wonder about some people on this forum sometimes.) BTW, you have to be really dumb to manage to touch the connectors of electrical feeder cables or the connectors. It is pretty well protected from stray fingers and stuff. Besides, with show power it is common practice to have all of the connections made and secured BEFORE you energize the rig. About all you can do wit feeder is have a fool disconnect a leg. The female connector ALWAYS has the power or electricity "in it." The male is connected to or comes from the device and never has voltage on it. Interestibgly, audio is oposite with the important stuff (the signal) flowing from or present at the male connector. It is always a brain bender for me to hook up intelligent lighting cabling because it is opposite of audio. DMX uses five pin XLR, but High End's older stuff uses 3 pin mic cables , BUT IT IS RUN BACKWARDS TO AUDIO. I have to deal with both and I always have to stop and think about it! the audio method is SO ingrained in my mind! See? No one did realize that BARE cable has a gender, too! (I got a million of 'em!)