Custom or DIY usb cables

Are you trying for USB3 or just 2? I did this maybe 10-12 years ago. I found soldering the pin connections to be a pain and opted for off the shelf ones. 

Would love to see how this goes for you though. My new E160 is just waiting on some custom built rings.

Nick Grundy:
Are you trying for USB3 or just 2? I did this maybe 10-12 years ago. I found soldering the pin connections to be a pain and opted for off the shelf ones. 

Would love to see how this goes for you though. My new E160 is just waiting on some custom built rings.

I will usb3 for the cameras and 2 for the other stuff. 
Dan

Have you looked at Amazon, they have USB 2 and 3 as short at 1 ft.

Whenever I feel like I need to fabricate my own custom cables, I go lie down until the feeling goes away. As a ham who has done lots of homebrew equipment and cables and a ton of soldering, my advice is to make do with high-quality off-the-shelf cables. Homebrew cables are a pain to make and generally are less reliable than you might like. The inconvenience of dealing with cables that are longer than you might like pales in comparison to the hassle of dealing with unreliable cables. I suspect, too, that USB3 cables have pretty stringent tolerances because of the high data speeds they are expected to support. Plus, what happens when you change equipment or configuration? Your custom cables are no longer the correct length. In the words of Nancy Reagan from many years ago, "just say no." There are a ton of commercial options that should be good enough and way less hassle.

Hi,
I've been cutting and resoldering to custom lengths USB cables and power cables for a long time now. Some have been in daily service for more than a decade. Also connecting to high quality relays for switching between multiple cameras and power conservation.

Regards,
Dave

I played with the pricing on USBfirewire and a custom 14" usb3 cable came out to ~70. Is that right? For that price, I can probably find a way to use the 2ft cable still. 

It is pretty cool how you can specify the various angles though.

Compared to the dollars I've just dished out for the E160 and all  the accouterments, this would be less than 5%. If it provides increased reliability and a more stable platform it would be worth it for me. A trip to my viewing site ruined by a bad cable could cost me about 5 hours.
Dan

Dan,

OT, but curious how you are hooking your focus controller and other boxes to the OTA. Are they attached directly to the tube or some sort of bracket underneath?

Here is a cad render that shows the brackets without the dovetail.
Dan