- January 2nd, 2009, 8:17 am#88141
I was looking at a pack someone was selling today and something about the ribbon cable struck me as being off.
At first I thought they might have used the ribbon cable being sold in the GBFans shop, as the clamp he's using appears to be from there, (It fits the cyclotron ring snugly.) and I wrongly remembered that cable as being narrower than the real one. (It's actually a bit wider.)
But after some investigation, I determined that he is in fact using the correct 30 pair cable, and the problem is actually with the clamp itself being too wide.
To be sure, I took my own 30 pair ribbon cable and placed it inside the cable clamp I purchased from the shop, and sure enough, it's a match for the pack on sale, but it doesn't match what we see in the reference pics. The easiest way to tell there's a difference is by looking at the bolts. On the GBFans clamp, a 30 pair cable just about fits between the bolts. But on the real packs, the bolts actually overlap the cable significantly. The end result is that the clamp appears to be something like a quarter of an inch too wide on each end.
Of course appearances can be deceiving. It's possible the clamp is exactly the right width, but for some reason, even though the cable has the correct number of wires, it's still narrower than the cables produced during the 1980's were. But that would be much more difficult to determine.
The GBFans clamp is still the most accurate clamp available in my opinion, and you could always take a hacksaw to it to narrow it down a bit, though nothing can really be done about the locaton of the bolts as they come pre-drilled. But I thought I should point this difference out so that maybe on the next run the design could be altered if neccessary. Perhaps he made it wider than normal intentionally though... seeing as the ribbon cable he sells is a bit wider than the real ones. Which I guess would make sense, but it would be nice to have a clamp sized for the 30 pair cable.
At first I thought they might have used the ribbon cable being sold in the GBFans shop, as the clamp he's using appears to be from there, (It fits the cyclotron ring snugly.) and I wrongly remembered that cable as being narrower than the real one. (It's actually a bit wider.)
But after some investigation, I determined that he is in fact using the correct 30 pair cable, and the problem is actually with the clamp itself being too wide.
To be sure, I took my own 30 pair ribbon cable and placed it inside the cable clamp I purchased from the shop, and sure enough, it's a match for the pack on sale, but it doesn't match what we see in the reference pics. The easiest way to tell there's a difference is by looking at the bolts. On the GBFans clamp, a 30 pair cable just about fits between the bolts. But on the real packs, the bolts actually overlap the cable significantly. The end result is that the clamp appears to be something like a quarter of an inch too wide on each end.
Of course appearances can be deceiving. It's possible the clamp is exactly the right width, but for some reason, even though the cable has the correct number of wires, it's still narrower than the cables produced during the 1980's were. But that would be much more difficult to determine.
The GBFans clamp is still the most accurate clamp available in my opinion, and you could always take a hacksaw to it to narrow it down a bit, though nothing can really be done about the locaton of the bolts as they come pre-drilled. But I thought I should point this difference out so that maybe on the next run the design could be altered if neccessary. Perhaps he made it wider than normal intentionally though... seeing as the ribbon cable he sells is a bit wider than the real ones. Which I guess would make sense, but it would be nice to have a clamp sized for the 30 pair cable.
- By Hairy Biker
- By tylergfoster