Are there any requirements for the wire that forms the cord of a body cord? Even unofficial ones that equipment control might care about?
I've got both too short floor cords that I'm considering breaking down into Body cords and extra cat5 that I no longer will be need that I might break down into body cords, I know it wont last as long and will required soldered ends but I've got solder and the price is right on the wire.
Mars or Bust
The A line in foil and sabre must be at least 40cm long, separated from the rest of the cord.
Pin to pin must be 1 ohm resistance or less on each line.
-B
"Oh but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
The floor cord wire should work out fine unless it is so old the insulation is cracking.
Not sure what you mean by cat 5 wire, is it something like the telephone wire they use for coiled mask cords? If so, the effort to use it may not be worthwhile for body cords.
You may wind up fixing it so often it will be just frustrating.
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Cat 5 is networking cable (typically unshielded twisted-pair). My experience has been that it accepts solder more readily than coiled telephone cable but with eight conductors I suspect that hooking it up to three pins might prove more of a pain than it's worth. Plus most patch cables I've seen seem a bit stiff for use as body cords (after all - how much do you expect your computer to move about once everything is plugged in?).Originally Posted by fencerbill
Outside of that, listen to what has already been said (separate the A line on foil/saber cords and keep resistance under 1 ohm). Most floor cords will work perfectly well (many manufacturers use the exact same cable for both). Just remember to connect everything together properly (no reversing B and C even if it's just for saber - it may work but why annoy the armorers unnecessarily).
I figured trying cat 5 would be interesting, I'd use three of the lines for A and B run a seperate cord for C, this would leave some extra lines for fixes later on. While I don't know what the standard is for resistance per meter it should be signifigantly less then one ohm over 1meter.
Mars or Bust
Use two pairs for each. I suspect you can strip, twist and tin the wires and they will work fairly well in the connectors. You don't have enough copper to fill the contact hole, but it ought to hold well enough. I would tin them. Just twisting bare copper is not likely to get you a really good contact.
I suggest that you make your body cord something more than just 1m long....
-B
"Oh but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
Or else oiuyt won't be able to borrow it.
Whoopee! My avatar is back.
Unlikely to have Negrini plugs in any case.
-B
"Oh but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
Do you have Negrini plugs on your epees?
Where can I get those little tin cap-thingies? And what's their proper name? I've seen them on the better (more expensive) bodycords that I've had to tear apart, but I haven't yet had the desire to embarrass myself at Home Depot AGAIN to try to get some myself.
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Don't bother - simply tin the wire with a bit of solder and you get the benefits (easier to insert the end of the wire into the pin and the screw has something solid to press against) and avoid the problems (metal plugs that get deformed to the point where they become difficult to get out of the plug when you eventually do have to make repairs).
Aha! All the better to borrow their sabres, as well! A cunning plan, I calls it.
Use the Shift key, people! Keyboard manufacturers everywhere are ineffably saddened when you ignore what they made just for you!
I would personally avoid using solid core Cat5 wire. This tends to be susceptible to breaking when repeatibly flexed in a small diameter. Additionaly, the Cat5 wire is much too small a guage to take the kind of beatings that body cords usually ahve to put up with. Even if you are using two pairs per conection, the wires are just not designed to handle that kind of repetitive flexing found at the connection points and when wrapped for storage. If we are talking about the Stranded patch cables (usually not found in the bulk Cat5/5e spools), then it is not as much of problem, but still would not be my first, second or even fifth choice.
Additionally, I would avoid the cheaper speaker wires that can be puchased in spools at your local electronics store. I am not sure if they are all like this, but I made the very annoying discovery that some speaker cable is pierced along the insulation supposedly to alow for heat to escape. I'm not really sure why people had thoughthis 10 years ago, but I do know the results were that about every 6"-8' there would be a corroded spot surrounding the pierced point on the wires where my sweat had soaked through.
If you are really looking to make foil/saber body cords, buy yourself a spool of decent 2 conductor "Zip" wire usually found attached to lamps and other electronics. I would suggest nothing less than a 16 gauge (AWG) wire, and to realy make it nice perhaps a flexable 14 AWG pair.
"Rub her feet!" - Lazarus Long, Time enough for Love, Robert A. Heinlein
"Never moon a werewolf."
Mike Binder
I favor 18-gauge, two-conductor lamp cord for foil/saber cords (at least the club ones that the students tend to loose before they wear out). Used to be able to get it for under $0.20/ft at Lowe's, although with the price of copper these days it's now closer to $0.30/ft.
For epee body cords I have used 18-gauge, three-conductor cable with a PVC jacket (looks like cheap vacuum cleaner cord) at Home Depot (originally bought a spool to make some floor cords and decided to use the rest for body cords). At the time it only cost abut $0.50/ft, but I suspect it's also gone up a bit since then.
If cost were no object then the Leon Paul wire would be really nice - problem is that the college students keep loosing them.
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