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A project log for Custom DAI connectors

Experimenting with making my own durable connectors while re-using DAI pins from failed cables (2014-)

gertlexGertlex 07/04/2015 at 06:350 Comments

I've now got a few of these connectors successfully made, and they work well. I never remade the mold; I continue to work with the one I have.

The approach now is to use hot glue to hold the two mold halves together, put masking tape on one side, add epoxy. Then once the epoxy has set but is still slightly malleable, I pull the back half of the mold off, leaving the pins in the other half. I poke around, loosening the epoxy from the aluminum, and then let it harden fully before completely detaching from the mold. This preserves the spacing, while greatly easing removal of the pins. Grabbing the epoxy connector with vise grips in order to pull the snug pins from the mold works quite well, in fact.

I never did further investigate making my own pins. I did just find some ~$35 DAI cables now being sold online, so I have a source of pins again... Ordered a pair just so I can assess the quality. (Answer: they're 2ft long, which is way too short for normal use, so they're going to be chopped up.)

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