EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: LaserSteve on March 09, 2018, 09:04:06 pm
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Where to get a 20 foot "survivable" flexible Ethernet cable for a University Robotics Project?
We have a competition robot that has to crawl into a 48"x48"by 60" steel cube with a few obstacles and take data. Edges of the metal will be relatively sharp. it needs to live for at least two hours of competition. Environment is dry and room temperature. Desired properties are flexible, tough, and already terminated. This is not a battle bot, just a probe. Cheap would help, budget per cable is 50$.
There has to be an industrial flex cable for robotics that is not solid wire, but today Google is not being my friend.
WIFI is out per the competition rules. :palm:
Steve
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"Continuous flex" is what you're looking for. L-com carries some, but it's not budget friendly.
http://www.l-com.com/tabbeditem_mobi.aspx?id=10532 (http://www.l-com.com/tabbeditem_mobi.aspx?id=10532)
Igus also sells terminated cables to go in flex chains, but no price listed.
http://www.newark.com/lumberg-automation/0985-806-500-10m/patch-cord-rj45-plug-cat5e-10m/dp/12X2560 (http://www.newark.com/lumberg-automation/0985-806-500-10m/patch-cord-rj45-plug-cat5e-10m/dp/12X2560) may be a candidate. High flex, so it can take repeat bending, but not sure how flexible/floppy it actually is.
:-+
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Lappkabel and Belden have some for sure. Take this starting point, as I am unlikely to find the exact designations before mid/end next week.
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There has to be an industrial flex cable for robotics that is not solid wire, but today Google is not being my friend.
Drag cable maybe?
This (https://www.lappkabel.de/fr/produkte/online-kataloge-shop/datenuebertragungssyssteme-fuer-ethernet-technologie/industrial-ethernet-leitungen-cat5-cat5e/industrial-ethernet-ec/etherline-ec-fd-cat5e.html) gets close to your budget constraints, unfortunately out of stock.
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Look for a production supply company, they'll have rugged networking cables, usually with nice Neutrik EtherCON connectors--you'll need EtherCON jacks to plug into, but the jacks accept standard 8P8C connectors. Should fit nicely in your budget, if I remember the last pricing we got on them correctly.
Alternatively, there are Cat-treated M12 Ethernet interconnects, so you can probably find a nice cable assembly using those connectors, although I'm not sure where you'd buy them.
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You can always make your own cables easily enough.
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Desired properties are flexible, tough, and already terminated.
If can diy you could run double split loom over it and wrap it with tape. Yes that's a lot of loom and a lot of tape :)
Or take a look at these:
https://www.belden.com/products/industrial/cable/ethernet/cat5e (https://www.belden.com/products/industrial/cable/ethernet/cat5e)
https://www.belden.com/products/industrial/cable/ethernet/cat6 (https://www.belden.com/products/industrial/cable/ethernet/cat6)
https://www.belden.com/products/industrial/cable/ethernet/cat5e-profinet (https://www.belden.com/products/industrial/cable/ethernet/cat5e-profinet)
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Thanks for the suggestions.
Steve
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Igus makes a lot of industrial high-flex field bus cables: e.g. https://www.igus.co.uk/iPro/iPro_01_0013_0208_GBen.htm (https://www.igus.co.uk/iPro/iPro_01_0013_0208_GBen.htm)
They have a lot more on the website.
Leo
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Cicoil DC 500 is my new dream cable.
Yes, they make silicone hyperflex twisted pair stranded cable, but at 10$ a foot or so its not inexpensive.
Next year we'll probably use RS485 or Canbus... Lesson learned.
Steve