Composite (Analog) cable: mechanical and electrical characteristics

Have you spoken to the cable manufacturer?

Not yet!!

I do not know who manufacture it!!

Manufacturer is not relevant for me. I just need a general information about it by now. Ones I find the manufacturer I will ask it directly.

Sorry but without knowing who manufactured the cable, what kind of composites were used, how it is used or anything about the cable at all then no one can help you.

If I could telepathically read your mind or implant thoughts I can guarantee that you would not be happy.

Please don't waste our time.

I contacted Monoprice, the one who manufacture the composite cable.They have no idea the lifespan of such a cable.

"6ft Triple RCA Stereo Video Dubbing Composite Cable (3 x RG59U)"

I do not know if somebody can help me out.

This appears to be the product you are talking about

Link

There is no manufacturer listed (Monoprice are a supplier, not the original manufacturer), but the online product specifications listed and reviews of the product are good as is the price ($2.43 USD). Generally for this type of commercial product (designed for residential or light commercial use and mass produced by many, many manufacturers to similar or identical specifications) there are no data sheets available.

The lifespan of the cable under normal use conditions (for example, residential use for connecting a TV up to DVD player) should exceed the life of any electronic device the cable itself is connected to. It is after all just a data cable, and these things just don't wear out.

If however this is for an industrial application (for example in a factory and subject to pollution, mechanical damage, etc), or you are planning on constantly plugging in and out the cable (causing excessive wear on the RCA plugs) then that is a different story.

What's your application?

If he gets rid of that lousy blister pack packaging he can store the cable for an even longer period of time. In a nice vacuum sealed package this cable should last a much longer time.

Jack:

Thak you for your help.

We are constantly plagging and unplaging the cable.

We have found mating cycles information about RF-Cables, Component cables (similar but not equal to composite cables), DVI cables, USB cables, optical audio cable and HDMI cables.

Just as a sample: a RF cable has a 500 mating cycles due to Push-On F-Connector (under some conditions controled). Cable has a 300 years life span under specific conditions.

This kind of information is the one I would like to find abaout RCA connectors. Composite cable (not connector) has 300 years life span under certain conditions.

I hope somebody can help!!

I have never seen this sort information supplied with simple RCA audio cables. Your best bet would be to contact a couple of audio cable manufacturers and ask them (unless you can track down the manufacturer of the Monoprice cable).

I believe there are electrical/mechanical standards that RCA plugs and sockets are built to, and the mating life cycle is probably included in there, but I don't know the names of the standards.

Why the need for the information? If you cannot find the mating cycle information, and it is important to you then you could always set up a little test and testing procedure and test it for yourself. After all the product is only a $3 cable.

Despite my earlier obnoxious comments, when I really can help somebody I do my best.

You imply in your information here exactly why it is difficult to give you any real perspective on what you should expect for a life span of one of these cables. The 500 mating cycles specification is for a push on F connector that resembles the mechanics of an RCA style connector. This is an average quality specification for an average quality connector. There are connectors of nearly every style that can be found with greater than 5000 cycle expectations and also ones rated for no more that 20 to 50 cycles. I can guarantee that if this cable manufacturer were using high quality connectors with higher than average expected mating cycle lifetimes, they would be putting this in their literature. Instead their claim is that they are cheap. You get what you pay for.

There's a compounding factor here that I expect that you've overlooked. The 20 to 50 cycles for a cheap connector is the number of times one of these connectors is mated to another RCA connector that one should expect a failure to happen. I believe your cable is an RGB cable that has six of these connectors as part of the cable. So the fourth time you attach both ends of this cable, 24 connections will have been made. You might have a failure on any subsequent reconnection.

The lifespan of the cable depends upon:

• Its resistance to mechanical abrasion
• Its resistance to mechanical flexing
• Its exposure to and resistance to the effects of ultraviolet light
• The levels of solvents in the environment and the resistance of the cable to those solvents
• The ambient temperature where it is installed
• How much the cable is being expected to dissipate heat
• Its resistance to acids and alkalis
• How close it has been bent to its minimum bending radius
• Whether or not it has been installed correctly and with due care
• etc.

Jack and Red:

Thank you for you help.

My boss is asking for cables lifespan manufacturer shows on their test spec.

We have already a table in which is shown how many cables we change per week and per month based on everyday "production life" (units tested on an stations per week / cables changed = Amount of matting cycles). I have to say that there is a lot of variation due to we have 4 shifts (7/24... 365days a year). May be my boss would like to compare what manufacturers says and what our data shows.

It is difficult to show to a boss that there are more than one factor which is direct related to the lifespan of a cable: let say, one day an operator arrives upset of life and pass all that hate to one cable. We change that cable with 20 mating cycles instead those 5000 manufacturers say.

We are thinking to develop a fixture or jig to control some variables.

Getting back to Composite cable life span. I have contacted monoprice for composite cable lifespan information. They told me they have not that information and they are the manufacturers. So I ask for their RCA connector suppliers. They told me they do not have information about it (That's why I said i do not know about manufacturer).

If somebody, by chance, have information, let me know. I appreciate it.

Well if your boss needs proof that these cheap cables could only be made with lousy connectors, look at the Newark catalog for RCA style connectors or more specifically a single low cost decent quality connector. This last connector costs nearly $1 each in lots of +100. Your cable assembly has six of these style connectors on them and costs less than $3 in similar quantities.

If your boss is really worried about reliability and the high cost of replacing cheap cables, well maybe he can save some money by buying better quality assemblies.

(I should say, I use Newark as a general supplier at work. I do not work at Newark. There certainly are many other suppliers but Newark has a great web site for component searches.)