2-core twisted-pair screened cable, 22AWG, by the metre?

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Anyone know a reasonably-priced source? I can find lots of places selling smaller diameter, or by the 100m reel, but not many matching all of the above. Part of the problem is that few of them list the core diameters, either in AWG or mm².

The points in the title are the official spec (as far as I know) for cable used for NMEA 0183 connections. Yes, I'm well aware it will usually work on anything from mains flex to a rusty barbed wire fence, but humour me. To some extent KS was my "learn how to do things" boat, new boat I want to do stuff right.

Thanks,

Pete
 
Damn (or Damme :) ) - why couldn't I find that before? :)

I did find some other Van Damme stuff, but the conductors were either smaller or their diameter wasn't listed.

Thanks, that was easy :)

Pete
 
David2452 said:
What a con, I could sell you some for 2/3rds of that and it's fully tinned too. NMEA spec is 22AWG to 28 AWG by the way, most commonly used is 22 because it's easy to source.
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Must admit I hadn't noticed the additional shipping cost on the above link. £1.59 per metre seemed like a good price, £2.84 less so.

How much would you want for, say, 10 metres? To be honest it is a while since I looked so I will do another search before picking. Especially since the spec is wider than I thought.

Cheers,

Pete
 
jamesjeffrey said:
Anyone who works around computers usually has plenty of old bundles of this lying around - http://www.maplin.co.uk/cat-5e-network-cable-ftp-solid-13246 - 24AWG, 4 twisted pairs, foil shielded. Used some on my boat and seems to work well. It is communications cable after all!
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Solid conductor, will work for an indeterminate time and then break from vibration and flexing fatigue just when you don't need it to. You can get it in multi strand but the cost is higher than the single twisted pair and it is difficult to source.
 
Oops You're right sorry - I didn't actually notice that was the solid stuff.

That stuff is for wall cabling - I had meant to link to the more average patch cable of the type you might find lying around in a house, like the free cable that came with your broadband router for connecting to your computer but you use wireless. This is the type most people, especially computer people, have lying around. Patch/drop leads like that will be stranded. Some of them are shielded some aren't.

But I don't agree it is expensive or dificult to source cable like this. The thing about computer network cable like Cat 5e and Cat 6 is it is made in truly enormous quantities... which can make it cheaper than more specialised cable. For example - 15m of CAT6 (usually 22AWG) FTP screened stranded drop cable - £4.69 from Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethernet-Ne...DRAK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1359116779&sr=8-3 - just cut the RJ45 plug off each end.

Of course it probably won't be tinned - which is where the marine stuff still scores - but you can always tin the ends yourself which provides some benefit, and many people have experience of untinned cables lasting well... there was plenty that had been on my boat for 20 years when I stripped it out that looked fine.

Having multiple twisted pairs in one cable has obvious advantages - even if you don't use them.

I used old unshielded Cat5 patch cables for the NMEA runs on my boat - and a year on so far so good.
 
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Not tinned and still the wrong stuff for marine use, risk it if you like but I wouldn't use it, as for tinning the ends, that just turns them into solid cable and introduces a stress fracture prone area, unless you propose tinning each individual strand that is. I have spent too many hours and too much customers money chasing bare copper wire back looking for bright conductors to compromise. Also getting away with it for a year or even five is not what I would want for myself and certainly not for customers.. The proper stuff as specified in the NMEA0400 standards is cheap enough so why compromise with inferior cable? We are talking about the difference of a say £5 for 10m of the wrong cable and £12 for the proper stuff.
 
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