I have some cat 5 used as Econet and there are a few things to be careful of if you are not familiar with it.
I find it unpleasant to solder din plugs to compared to the vintage cables, the insulation melts much more readily, and its quite hard to strip, you need very sharp wire strippers or you just stretch the insulation off the end of the conductor, the solid core one is painful to use with solder less breadboard for the same reason.
It also comes in stranded and solid core, the solid core version is intended for rigid in building installation, the stranded version for flying leads and patch leads etc.
The stranded and solid core have different types of IDC mechanisms in the clear plastic plug. The stranded one is like a single spade shaped blade that punctures through the middle of the cable strands, the solid core connectors is a Y shape designed to fit round the conductor. Using the wrong one for the cable type is highly unreliable.
I like the look of Ken's mini hub, I have often wondered about doing something like that, but I would have all the DIN sockets facing upwards like the ones used in the original acorn/sj socket boxes.
https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.or ... ocket.html
I use a remnant cutoff from the Acorn Melbourne conference demo Econet which is three die cast boxes with three din socket in each, then a length of cat5 with din plugs soldered on the ends, and a little plastic box about the same size as the acorn socket box but just with a single socket in five faces. It would be much more practical to have all the sockets in the same plane though. Its this last piece that I would like to replace. I would also have an option to split the banks data in two so I could connect my bridge to two networks, I am thinking a common clock is probably ok.
My vintage cable says ASC DATA CABLE B2002 CS and is twin twisted stranded pair with shield and ground, its quite pliable so not intended to be built in.
Alan
I find it unpleasant to solder din plugs to compared to the vintage cables, the insulation melts much more readily, and its quite hard to strip, you need very sharp wire strippers or you just stretch the insulation off the end of the conductor, the solid core one is painful to use with solder less breadboard for the same reason.
It also comes in stranded and solid core, the solid core version is intended for rigid in building installation, the stranded version for flying leads and patch leads etc.
The stranded and solid core have different types of IDC mechanisms in the clear plastic plug. The stranded one is like a single spade shaped blade that punctures through the middle of the cable strands, the solid core connectors is a Y shape designed to fit round the conductor. Using the wrong one for the cable type is highly unreliable.
I like the look of Ken's mini hub, I have often wondered about doing something like that, but I would have all the DIN sockets facing upwards like the ones used in the original acorn/sj socket boxes.
https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.or ... ocket.html
I use a remnant cutoff from the Acorn Melbourne conference demo Econet which is three die cast boxes with three din socket in each, then a length of cat5 with din plugs soldered on the ends, and a little plastic box about the same size as the acorn socket box but just with a single socket in five faces. It would be much more practical to have all the sockets in the same plane though. Its this last piece that I would like to replace. I would also have an option to split the banks data in two so I could connect my bridge to two networks, I am thinking a common clock is probably ok.
My vintage cable says ASC DATA CABLE B2002 CS and is twin twisted stranded pair with shield and ground, its quite pliable so not intended to be built in.
Alan
Statistics: Posted by awilliams — Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:17 am