[sdiy] coax vs wire

[Seb Francis]

Hi Tom,

I tend to use shielded 1 pair 'console' cable.  This is nice and thin 
(2.70mm overall) and flexible (28x 0.10mm stranding per wire) and 
perfect for wiring up all those 3 wire connections like switched jack 
sockets and potentiometers.

http://www.rapidonline.com/searchresults.aspx?style=0&kw=02-0016

For switched jack sockets shielding is provided for both the signal and 
the switched signal that is used when no jack is inserted.

For potentiometers very often one side of the pot is ground so this gets 
connected to the shield, then the 2 inner wires carry the other 2 
connections which are kept shielded.

For 2 wire connections (e.g. non switched jack sockets) I use the same 
stuff, but just don't use 1 of the inner wires.

Seb



Tom Arnold wrote:
> I'm just pondering where to use coax vs where to use wire when hooking up a
> front panel.
>
> Till now, most of the time I just use wire.  In one case ( passive ring mod
> ) I used Coax because I have to use a preamp after the ring mod to get
> levels tolerable and I was afraid of noise.
>
> My thinking is to only bother with Coax for the audio path.
>
> My normal wiring method is to star ground the front panel.  What I'm
> pondering is then using coax for signal lines to the front panel.  Most of
> the boards I deal with dont have a place to land the braid on the board so
> my plan is to land the braid at the panel side of things and take the shield
> as close as I can to the board and heatshrink it.
>
> In any case I don't plan to bother with coax for control lines.
>
> I know this is going to be a highly opinionated subject...
>
> Thanks!
>
>