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Sunday, December 08 2024 |
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Easy Self Rounding ATA-100 Cables
-- Tuesday, January 22, 2002
Why do it? There are a few reasons for wanting rounded cables. The most popular reason is for better air circulation in the case. By reducing
the cable size air moves easier past a round cable as opposed to a flat ribbon cable. Other reasons are to stop clutter in a case, and it just looks cool.
Skill level After reading other articles about self rounding I found the same thing, use a razor knife to cut between the wires.
That method worked fine back when those articles were written, that is when ATA-33 was the standard with only 40 wires in cables. A ATA-100
cable has 80 wires in the same amount of space. If you try using a razor on a ATA-100 cable you better have allot of time and a steady hand or you better
have a bunch of extra cables laying around. This is what happens if you don't have a steady
hand using a razor. You get exposed bare wires and no one likes bare wires
Instead of using a razor and spending a hour or so on 1 cable, you can finish 2 ATA-100 cables and your
floppy cable in under a hour. And most likely not make any mistakes.
What you will need First, of course, you're going to need a ATA-100 cable. You'll need a heavy duty needle, I think it's the kind used for yarn.
The picture on the left shows the needle size. As you can tell the
bottom needle is twice as thick and longer then normal needles I have tried using a smaller needle only to have them snap in half.
You will also need a cutting board, tie wraps (about 8-10), and
electrical tape. No electrical tape doesn't just come in black, you can
buy it in a variety of colors at Home Depot.
I recommend using a cutting board so you don't cut/scrap your work surface.
All Rights Reserved. 2001 Design by Disco.
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