Sega extension cords for use with 2600

[Stingray]

Rather than hogging up space in the Marketplace forum I decided to continue this discussion here.

 

Relevent posts:

 

Watch out with those sega genesis extensions. They don't have real copper wires in them, it is like a plastic-wire mix that is really hard to solder and work with. After you take the insulation off the wire will strech out really thin and then you hit it with a lighter, because it won't stay twisted if you don't, and it burns green down the whole length of the stripped wire. After that it is extremely brittle and hard to keep from breaking.

 

Well I ended up winning the Genesis extension cord auction. I'll be happy to report how well they work out.

 

 

Please let us know. I have some arcade parts in shipping right now. Take some pictures if you can. Im interested in seeing the plastic core wires.

 

I had the same problem with that kind of wire. It's also in some phone extension cords. The best thing to do is to use phone line splicing connectors. They bite into the wire through the insulation so the wire doesn't break.

 

Okay, first of all here is what the wire looks like. This is at about 3x magnification:

 

 

What it seems to be is some kind of nylon thread with copper braided around the outside. I pulled a few of the strands apart to show what it looks like inside. As BJK said if you hit it with a lighter it flames up and the nylon burns out quickly leaving pretty much nothing to work with.

 

Thinking that there would be no way you could solder to this stuff I went ahead and tried it just to illustrate the point. I was very pleasantly suprised to find that soldering to it is very easy if you carefully strip away the insulation being sure not to damage the copper braid around the outside of the nylon - I used a sharp exacto knife instead of a wire stripper. I found that this wire heats up instantly when you touch the soldering iron to it and it sucks up the solder like a sponge. I tinned one wire with no problem (you can see the tinned wire sticking out from the back just to the right of the black wire). I then tinned the green and yellow wires, twisted them together and was able to solder them together just by touching the soldering iron to them. And no you cannot twist this wire together unless you tin it first.

 

The blue crimp connector is really too big for this type of wire, but it was all I had handy so I gave it a shot. I don't think you could crimp directly to this stuff since it comes apart very easily once you remove the insulation. So, once again I tinned the wire. I then folded it over in half to increase crimping area. I crimped to the tinned wire and the connection is solid. I haven't had a chance to try the phone connectors as suggested by Tsukasa, but that also seems like a good way to deal with this type of wire.

 

So all in all this stuff does take more care than regular wire, but it's not too tough to work with if you're careful not to break the copper when you strip off the insulation.

 

For those who are interested here is how the wire colors correspond to the pins, assuming all Sega branded extension cords use the same wire colors:

 

 

-S

[jeepnut24]

Thanks for the update. Are there 8 or 9 wires?

[jsoper]

Sega extension cables have nine wires, but I only use them for extension cords. If I need a new 2600 controller cable it's easier and cheaper to buy a $2 genesis controller in a thrift and desolder it.

[Stingray]

There are indeed nine wires. My camera isn't up to the job of taking up close shots of small objects. I used my scanner instead, but I didn't manage to get all of the wires in the shot.

 

-S

[bjk7382]

For those who are interested here is how the wire colors correspond to the pins, assuming all Sega branded extension cords use the same wire colors:

-S

 

All the sega extensions have the same colors in them, but they are all different colors than the atari wires. I had a hell of a time trying to figure out what wires are what. Below is a key for using the sega wires in place of a 2600 wire (only 6 wires are used)

 

Sega Ext.   -    Atari 2600 Wire

------------------------------

Brown      =     White

Red        =     Blue

Orange     =     Green

Yellow     =     Brown

Blue       =     Orange

Black      =     Black 

 

Below are my notes that I was using when figuring out the wires. Not the neatest thing in the world.

[Susuwatari]

Not to throw a monkey wrench but different brand of the extension cord would have different colored wires for the pins. Same with 3rd party controllers. So always double-check the wire to match up with the pins before you spend an hour soldering together only to find out nothing worked at all.

[bjk7382]

Not to throw a monkey wrench but different brand of the extension cord would have different colored wires for the pins.  Same with 3rd party controllers.  So always double-check the wire to match up with the pins before you spend an hour soldering together only to find out nothing worked at all.

 

I have used wico extensions and they have the same color wires in them that atari used. But you are correct it is best to check them with a multimeter before soldering (which I did)