dougw Oh, my favorite hatted thing to do in the shop! Before we can build a custom cable you have to take a long look at "TOOLING" Well if you are working with mill connectors, which I do, they come in two flavors, solder and crimp and then poke home. For solder connectors, you need your wire to be striped to the proper length and then dipped into the solder pot then soldered into the appropriate "cup", now you should use shrink over the wire cup and the wire, hopefully, you did it right and there < 1/8" between the top of the cup and the insulation!!! If you did it right, get a beer!, Now for the monster in the crimp and poke! well just like before you have to strip the wire. Then get the right tools and accessories to make the perfect crimp. crimp it can then poke it home, please note you don't need the shrink tubing here. 

Now the question is this a one-off if not, I normally try and build a jig to plug into my cable tester.. But then I need to develop a Map.  lets say the cable that we are talking about has a large round connector at one end and 3 or 4 smaller connectors at the other end. PRAY that there are no errors. My little tester has 100 outputs and 100 inputs! 

ALL off the paper work for each connector is stored on the computer. 

 dougw OH BTW take a look at this website  it is all about wiring!! enjoy ~~ Cris

Thanks for sharing these tips.  I was not familiar with the MTA connectors before, and the animated Yoda gave me a good chuckle.

I try not to use these whenever there is just a hole and a pad on one side of the PCB, as oppose to a plated-through-hole with a pad on both sides of the PCB. Especially if you intend to use it as a test point as well as the mechanical support for a ferrule. Using them as the support for set-on-test components is even more critical as they may have to have components soldered, removed, and soldered again several times before the correct value is achieved. I have found that Vero-pins work well, the ones that look like a small nail that has been knurled from underneath the head to about half-way down its length. They are a tight fit in both fibre-glass and paxolin so I usually fit them first before any of the other components, especially if the PCB is tightly packed. The ones I have used are not hollow; they are too small to be drilled. The hollow ones tend to be thicker and so occupy a lot of real-estate.

If there is a pad on both sides of the board then use both of them, and solder as quickly as possible. Excess heat can make the holes in the PCB a loose fit and/or cause the pads and nearby track to come unstuck. Using the holes through the ferrules to support probes requires well-fitted ferrules! 

There is another type; they have a pair of 'jaws' at the top. Two of them will hold small components for soldering.

that gun is only good for one thing!! For my RJ-45 Male connectors, I have an AMP gun (70089795) and all the inserts. I think 6 or more. But now I only use RJ45 dies. I had one lost the dam dies in moving and bought one off eBay for about $50.00 worth every nickel!!

BTW I have other crimpers for other stuff maybe about 10 + heads!. 

I'm still looking for the perfect tool to crimp connectors reliably and quickly, but I think the biggest pain point for me is doing the wiring for prototypes. Either making new cables or trying to find the right cable in my box of already-made wires is not a pleasant experience. I have quite a collection of cables of different lengths and different number of wires, and 99% of the time,  I end up needing a cable with one less or one more wire that what I already have in stock!

So I'm taking a page from a friend's book. He recently started using a wire-wrapping tool for quick connections in prototypes (and one-off projects) quite successfully. I don't have the tool yet but should be on its way. I'm super eager to try that approach to wiring.

I actually like wire-wrap a lot as a connection system.

BTW did you notice that Yodamonk has three fingers on right hand and four on the left? :D

AI still has it limits... ....thankfully...

Alternatively - this is the only Yodamonk in the universe - he is supposed to look like that...

I haven't tried this myself, but I did come across this offering the other day from LCSC - if DIY is not your thing. Pricing seemed reasonable too:

www.lcsc.com/customcables