Home made DC cables

thomasw88

I'd like to make my own DC cables as its like spaghetti junction on my pedal board at the moment.

  Happy to use a soldering iron.  I'm aware of the solderless ones, and contemplating buying a couple of the harley benton sets but wondering if it can be done a lot cheaper..

Is it doable to buy a bunch of 2.1mm barrels and cut off one end of the an existing DC cable and resolder a new barrel on there?

or should i buy some cable and barrels?  If so any recommendations for cheap and reliable connectors/cable?

jasonbone75

Yes totally doable. Watch your polarity and check with a meter before plugging in. Otherwise it's a straightforward operation.

digitalscream

That's exactly what I've just done - I had a couple of unused daisy-chains kicking around, so I just chopped them up and turned them into individual cables. I used these (the barrel sockets might be useful in another project):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07Y2TJMMJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

thomasw88

jasonbone75 said:

Yes totally doable. Watch your polarity and check with a meter before plugging in. Otherwise it's a straightforward operation.

I have a meter. What do you need to do?   put the tip against the barrel and the other one to the wire?

jasonbone75

Yes you want to strip and tin the new end prior to termination and then with meter identify which wire is tip and which ground on the existing plug. Usually if it is the molded 2 conductor DC supply type cable one will be marked and one blank. Once you know which you can wire the new plugs to match.