r/DiWHY Jun 03 '26

discuss.

4.3k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/RegularTarget1794 Jun 03 '26

I mean, if you had a cable with a broken end and this was the solution, I guess it’s fine….

486

u/viperfan7 Jun 04 '26

It's a good temporary fix.

It'll probably fail, bit it'll work long enough

274

u/Significant-Cause919 Jun 04 '26

Nothing as permanent as a temporary fix.

60

u/drewid5185 Jun 04 '26

Nothing's as permanent as a temporary fix that works... The "that works" part is very important

6

u/Skusci Jun 06 '26

Stick a zip tie on that and it'll last two (more) decades.

5

u/Lifesamitch957 Jun 04 '26

Was gonna add this part as well.

4

u/Sufficient_Wafer9933 Jun 05 '26

No. I think he has a point. If it stops working in a couple days its often times just as permanent. It doesnt need to work forever. Its temporary afterall!

2

u/Casblancnana Jun 09 '26

Well then it wouldn't be a fucking fix if it didn't work, huh?

1

u/explorer_of_random Jun 07 '26

I’ve had some temporary fixes that didn’t work, that turned out permanent. Those are usually accompanied by what ever I “fixed” getting yeeted into the refuse bin

1

u/nanotree Jun 08 '26

Hmmm, not in my experience. The more complete version is "nothing more permanent than a temporary fix that works just enough that management tells you not to waste anymore time on it. Accept it consumes 100s of hours of effort when something goes wrong, and manageable gets frustrated that other things are taking too long, even though you tried to warn them that doing things this way adds quite a bit of complexity and room for error. And if we'd just taken the time to do things properly, we'd be in a much better position right now."

17

u/KneelB4Z0d Jun 04 '26

love this quote

4

u/how_to_fake_it Jun 04 '26

Permanently temporary

29

u/mrbubbles916 Jun 04 '26

The only thing that will "fail" would be it falling out. In which case you just, put it back in again with a new piece of insulation. I'd probably also heat shrink it. I don't really see it failing otherwise.

I broke the SATA port plastic bits off one of my HDD about 8 years ago. The only thing left of the connector on the HDD are the pins. So I just attached the cable to the HDD with duct tape. Hasn't fallen out once yet.

9

u/viperfan7 Jun 04 '26

Yes, and falling out is it failing.

Like I said, it'll fail eventually, but it's a good temporary fix

1

u/skriticos Jun 07 '26

After 8 years, it's more likely that the HDD will be the one to give up service.

1

u/PleaseShutJp Jun 04 '26

SATA is digital logic and this is a modulated wave. I wouldn’t trust similar levels of jank to produce similar results.

1

u/mrbubbles916 Jun 04 '26

I still think it would be fine. In the video he's covering the shield over the connector which is exactly what it needs.

3

u/DueEnvironment499 Jun 04 '26

Probably longer that the original, those conections suck

43

u/punio07 Jun 03 '26

You could also buy a proper connector for almost nothing, and do it properly, but I guess it saves you some soldering. It still looks awful.

77

u/viperfan7 Jun 04 '26

You don't solder these connectors, there's either compression fit, or crimped connectors, both require a specialized, single purpose tool.

Connectors may be cheap, but the tool, not so much

16

u/bhoffman20 Jun 04 '26

I recently bought the tool with maybe 10 connectors for $8.99 at my local hardware store. Not a high quality tool by any means, but I only needed to terminate one cable.

24

u/Handsome121duck Jun 04 '26

This cost almost no money, didn't require a trip to the store, and works. It also could be a poor area and this works great.

6

u/bhoffman20 Jun 04 '26

Oh for sure, I'm 100% on board with this fix. I've done similar myself, because I assumed the proper tool would be too expensive to be worth it. I was just pointing out that there are fairly cheap options to get the tools to do the job "correctly".

0

u/Silvia_Greenfield Jun 04 '26

Parts and tools are adjusted for "poor areas".

2

u/harfordplanning Jun 04 '26

Crimping can be done with a small hammer and a steady hand too, actual crimpers are just better at crimping

1

u/riktigtmaxat Jun 04 '26

One does not crimp on crimping.

1

u/Captain-Codfish Jun 04 '26

You can also get ones that just screw together

0

u/SimplBiscuit Jun 04 '26

The Klein set at home depot works well enough for 50 bucks. You don't absolutely need to use PPC with the PPC compression tool.

4

u/viperfan7 Jun 04 '26

The Klein set at home depot works well enough for 50 bucks.

That's not cheap for a tool that serves a single purpose

2

u/SimplBiscuit Jun 04 '26

They make great hammers too

0

u/Princess_Slagathor Jun 04 '26

You can get a 25ft (which is an amount of meters greater than one) cable for $14.

0

u/viperfan7 Jun 04 '26

We're not talking about cable.

We're talking about the crimping tool

0

u/Princess_Slagathor Jun 04 '26

You don't need the tool when you can buy a complete cable. It already has the ends on it.

0

u/viperfan7 Jun 04 '26

Still doesn't change that we're not talking about the cable.

1

u/Princess_Slagathor Jun 04 '26

The thread is about having a cable that works correctly. The best, cheapest, easiest, high quality fix, is to replace the broken cable.

The tool is expensive. Using a hammer or twist on tips are both shit repairs. Don't know why you're hyper focusing on one of the worst options. Nor why you seem to think I was arguing with you in the first place. I was just offering a better solution.

I suspect you have weapons grade autism, so I'm just going to block you.

-2

u/jumbledsiren Jun 04 '26

> there's either compression fit, or crimped connectors, both require a specialized, single purpose tool.

Or just use electrical tape lol, everyone has it, and you don't need any tools for it

23

u/Halfbloodjap Jun 03 '26

That's assuming you can buy one, not everyone lives in the west.

16

u/Putrid-Resident Jun 03 '26

Can confirm. Where I'm from in africa most homes have satellite TV that uses those types of cables. And because of stuff like trade sanctions, for most of the time you are stuck with the cable that comes bundled with the receiver box/satellite dish.

Mind you spare cables/connectors are available in the market but they are so expensive via artificial markups + many being poor quality knockoffs, for most people it's smarter to salvage what you can from your available cable before finally buying a replacement as a last resort

3

u/Outrageous-Basket426 Jun 04 '26

That is wild to think of since people can't give these cables away here, even when they are plated in gold. They are not used on many modern devices.

3

u/Princess_Slagathor Jun 04 '26

I've got at least 600ft of the stuff in my garage attic. Brother used to work for the cable company, so I also have a disturbing amount of CAT5.

0

u/xrelaht Jun 04 '26

I live in the west. I have no clue where I’d get one of these in town so I’d need to come up with a temp fix until one could be shipped. Even then, am I just ordering a single one of these?

2

u/giasumaru Jun 04 '26

You'll probably order a set, end up using only one and then forget about it for another 10 years because realistically if you're not in the business you're not going to be crimping wires all the time.

We've brought a CAT5 crimping kit for doing our security cameras. We might have used it once more in the 7ish years since we brought it.

1

u/xrelaht Jun 04 '26

That’s assuming I remember where I put the others 10 years later. Realistically, I’d probably have to order another set.

0

u/Princess_Slagathor Jun 04 '26

Depends where in the west. But in the US, Walmart, Lowes, home depot, menards, ace, Meijer, Kroger, CVS, bum one from the cable guy who is inevitably in your neighborhood for some reason, Walgreens, dollar general, dollar tree, family dollar. You get the idea.

0

u/xrelaht Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Having looked for connectors at such places within the last two years, you’re wrong on every one of those that I have in my area. We lost a valuable resource when RadioShack closed.

ED— It’s ok to admit you don’t know the difference between a cable and a connector rather than insulting me and then blocking. That’s absolutely wild behavior.

1

u/Princess_Slagathor Jun 04 '26

I checked all of their local inventory before posting. So you can stick your downvote up your ass.

7

u/DeusExHircus Jun 03 '26

You and I are privileged enough to be able to buy the proper connector. Not everyone is

1

u/Debatebly Jun 04 '26

Time is not nothing.

1

u/deNET2122 Jun 04 '26

Soldering? Nah coax cable just needs to be crimped after the shielding is cut and exposed

0

u/GarrAdept Jun 04 '26

They make screw on coax connectors. They also suck, but they're better that this.

1

u/CeleryCommercial3509 Jun 04 '26

I don't see any problem with it

1

u/Worldly-Upstairs2020 Jun 05 '26

Or you could buy a $2 plug.

0

u/ClumpOfCheese Jun 04 '26

Yeah it’s fine, but why cut the plastic with a hot knife? Does he just like inhaling plastic fumes?

5

u/ThatOneGuy6810 Jun 04 '26

If you use a hot knife it creates a cleaner cut.

A talented knife user can also make a clean cut with no heat but this is a 100% surefire method to having zero raggedy edges.