Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | There have been a few instances where I've needed a specific length of CAN cable for an Ag Leader install. My first step was to look around for a used but good CAN cable with the correct connectors and lay it aside.
My plan was to cut the used cable into two sections and add length to the middle with common wire since I was not able to obtain new loose CAN connectors.
To increase the length of the cable, I used bulk wire of the matching colors of Green, Yellow, Red and Black. I would clamp the four wires in a bench vise and unroll enough wire to cover the extra length. I would pull on the wires with slight tension to keep them aligned, cut them and put them in the chuck of a battery powered drill. I would then back away from the vise and use the drill to twist the wires together. I would walk toward the vise as necessary to keep slight tension on the wires as they were twisted. A twist every inch is recommended. More is OK but don't over twist since this may cause kinks.
When the drill is removed, the wires will attempt to untwist some on the their own. A helper or weight was used next to keep some tension on the twisted wires while a person wrapped electrical tape around the wires at convenient intervals to keep the wires twisted together. I would then place split loom over the twisted wires. I would leave excess split tubing extending out both ends to eventually cover the completed cable.
I would then cut the used CAN cable by carefully removing the outer covering. I would cut the wires at staggered intervals so the splices would not be in the same places. with each other. I would then place a chuck of shrink tubing over each wire, trim and strip them to match up with the corresponding color wire. The excess split loom was then placed over the splices and cut to the correct length. The result was a decent looking extended cable.
This did take a bit of time but worked properly. Getting the proper length cable or connecting several together would have been another option. |
Field IQ cable
