Simple Trick to Improve Shielding Effectiveness of a Screened Cable: Practical Demonstration

[@franzliszt3195]

God dam, this guy knows his stuff.

[@gregorykusiak5424]

Indeed! It’s the little things like this that people overlook when questioning why they’re not seeing top performance at the edges of performance envelopes. This is going to get increasingly important for data exchange/infrastructure.

[@nickdavis4839]

Great demonstration! Thank you for taking the time to make the video.

[@MachOneDesignEMC]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@tahirsongelen7781]

That's the perfect explanation tnx ur effort will follow up yr nex t plan rgds fr Istanbul

[@ralfbaechle]

Thanks for a video on this so important yet mostly ignored part of electronics. I've seen far worse cables. I'd call the two cables and plugs you are demonstrating typical standard qualiities. And sure, as long as a plastic plug is only used for something like RS-232 everything is fine. My two lowlights were RG58 variants. The one had “shielding” which was made from exactly one thin wire - the wire a mesh would normally be made of. This was probably made to just about the use as a network cable - but I was feeding RF through it. It came as it had to, the shielding wire burn up on first trie. The other RG58 had a foam dielectric, double shielding made from one layer of aluminium foil covered by another layer of dense mesh. It did look like a really good cable. Except it was the worse performing cable I ever held in my hands.

[@MachOneDesignEMC]

Hi Ralfbaechle, that's really good feedback. To be honest, as you can see, our videos are mainly focused on EMI, EMC and high-speed measurement, I have been very surprised to see so much interest in this particular video, which is not even one of my personal favourites. But it does highlight the issues we face in our job and life, we have some more videos coming on co-aixal cables, in which I used two different methods measuring the performance of co-axial cables, which are scheduled for November 21st and 28th. It will be interesting to hear your feedback by then!

[@douglaskoo2354]

Thank you for sharing🎉

[@rubhern8187]

As a system field technician i find lots of poorly cheaply terminated cables being used in fleet tracking gps units upon inspecting them. i stumbled on your channel by accident and this is the best channel i have seen close to what i do in the field. i would like to know which is better aluminium or copper foil? Subscribed and thumbs up.i will definitely be watching your other videos.🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@volodymyrzakolodyazhny]

Electrical conductivity is similar, but aluminium is much cheaper and it doesn't change as much as pure copper in open air.

[@MachOneDesignEMC]

I used to study the possiblity of using Aluminium wire to replace copper wire in EV charging cables, because aluminium is a lot cheaper and lighter, but at least at the time i studied it, there were big challenges.

[@MachOneDesignEMC]

Many thanks Rubhern, we will try to make more on this subject for sure. As i mentioned to the other viewer, this video took me by a massive surprise. I was not expecting so much interests, but we have more videos schedueld on cables and connectors in the following weeks and months. Typically, our vidoes address different issues related to EMI, not just cables and connectors, but we do take great advice from our viewers and we often make videos according to your need. Thanks

[@sssxxxttt]

@@MachOneDesignEMC The "lighter" property would be appreciated. I was surprised when I fond out an extension cord for a 12V batteri charger had aluminium conductors. The problem is you can't solder it and if you clamp it there needs to be a spring in the clamp because aluminium deforms with time.

[@Tuong11a]

Great video. Appreciate. Only problem with camera focus but not big deal.

[@MachOneDesignEMC]

Noted! We will definitely improve this in our future videos!

[@bluesteelbass]

Wow. All that money and effort using a "descent" shielded cable and all metal connector, only to go completely amateur hour when connecting the metal connector to the cable. 🤦‍♂ Great video showing the results of a good termination!

[@MachOneDesignEMC]

Thanks, indeed, I was shocked when I opened the clamp shell. But I shouldn't be surprised! Perhaps you can get much better ones from trusted distributors such as Digikey, mouser, etc, but I bet the price will be four times more than this one. I spent 15 GBP on this one.

[@Electric_Feelz]

Ive seen this often where a cable has adequate shielding but it is not adequately grounded at the entry point. In many cases where the cable/conductors continue into the shielded compartment, the cable shield and drain wire enter the shielded compartment as well, essentially providing a path for undesired signals...

[@MachOneDesignEMC]

Exactly, and if you want to buy a really good quality one, then you have to pay incredibly high price. I think there should be a standard in the industry to regulate this.

[@donnymac575]

It's amazing how many cables aren't constructed with EMC taken into account 😢

[@MachOneDesignEMC]

Indeed, this is especially concerning for everyday use. I often receive emails from people who are into sound systems, music, and gaming, sharing horror stories about their experiences with EMI.

[@AndrejaKostic]

I believe that one of the issues is that most of the consumers aren't qualified to have an opinion on the EMC side of things. Therefore, manufacturers focus on easily visible things such as the feeling the cable gives when touched, or how good connectors look, but the invisible things, such as if the shield is properly connected, are the good RF gaskets inside and so on, all of that is not visible to average consumers, and therefore gets cut to save on costs, or to increase profits. It's very similar for Ethernet cables, for computer video cables and so on.

[@SkyhawkSteve]

Yep.. a drain wire is not a substitute for a continuous shield when it comes to RF frequencies.