Rejoining hue cable?

ChilliBob

Hey guys, 

After less than a day outside, my new hue outdoor light strip was bitten through by a fox!

Turns our these strips have 6 cables in them, as pictured.



As this was fairly expensive I'd like to salvage it if possible! Now clearly joining each cable to it's corresponding colour isn't too tricky - fiddly as it's small, yes, but possible. Then some insulation tape around each join. Then gaffs tape over it.. We'll, that was my idea, but I'm sure people more electrically minded may have better ideas..

Some considerations... Outdoor csble connectors - look great but three cable only, not 6. Obviously two wouldn't work!

Wagos - see to only go to 5, then would need to box them in somehow.

Standard chock block - would work, but makes it very bulky, and this break is, about 10 cm from the end of the light strip end - so if attahed somewhere it'd look pants, and also need some kind of box.

So yeah, any ideas better than my fiddly one are most welcome!... Mine could be better with another small rectangular box and some Ct1 to seal it or something.

Cheers! 

molerat

Solder and heat shrink sleeve ?

knightstyle

You could buy something like this. https://www.screwfix.com/p/raytech-fred-n-2-entry-3-pole-ip69k-gel-filled-straight-cable-joint-black/180hf.   It will take several small connectors.  Or do what I did and solder the cables together and use small heat shrink sleeving to insulate individual joints and large HS sleeve to cover the whole lot.

ChilliBob

molerat said:

Solder and heat shrink sleeve ?

Interesting, I don't even own a soldering iron, not used one since the days of radio controlled cars about 30 years ago! 

Lorian

Doesn't the cable already have more damage? How will you stop it happening again?

FreeBear

ChilliBob said: Wagos - see to only go to 5, then would need to box them in somehow.

A 5 way Wago won't work - All the terminals are connected to each other. Great if you want to link 5 wires together. What you need is six two way Wago blocks. Better still, slip a short bit of heat shrink sleeving over each wire and solder them together. Slide the heat shrink over the joint, and apply a bit of heat. Do not use plumber's flux & solder unless you want to have to do it all again in a few months time.

Mr.Generous

Lorian said:

Doesn't the cable already have more damage? How will you stop it happening again?

Some anti fox spray.

ChilliBob

Lorian said:

Doesn't the cable already have more damage? How will you stop it happening again?

No, it's basically just bitten through. Another time to stop it is another project - I hadn't really decided where to put it, this was just a test really. But other ideas would include bark chips, perhaps conduit, not sure really.

Just hoping it doesn't happen to the ones near the house, they were much pricier! - precaution has been taken and more will be! 

grumpy_codger

molerat said:

Solder and heat shrink sleeve ?

Exactly.
Small diameter heat shrinks for each wire, then a big one (or two) on the top for the whole cable.

ChilliBob

FreeBear said:

ChilliBob said: Wagos - see to only go to 5, then would need to box them in somehow.

A 5 way Wago won't work - All the terminals are connected to each other. Great if you want to link 5 wires together. What you need is six two way Wago blocks. Better still, slip a short bit of heat shrink sleeving over each wire and solder them together. Slide the heat shrink over the joint, and apply a bit of heat. Do not use plumber's flux & solder unless you want to have to do it all again in a few months time.

Interesting, as someone who's not soldered since school I sense something this fine might not pan out too well!

I'm moving more towards a terminal block and somehow weatherproofing it.. Which yes, won't look too clever, but there's probably a higher chance of me getting it working!

I still need to decide where to use it, which may impact the repair type! 

ChilliBob

grumpy_codger said:

molerat said:

Solder and heat shrink sleeve ?

Exactly.
Small diameter heat shrinks for each wire, then a big one (or two) on the top for the whole cable.

Hmm, I can't ignore this being said three times. So that would involve a soldering iron kit, with a pointed tip, some solder, then six types of heat shrink, 2 mm, and a, bigger shrink for the main cable.

Think I'd need to look on YouTube for some tutorials! My memories were doing it at school on 1995, and most of that was messing around! I vaguely remember my brother doing it a fair bit for battery packs for rc cars - using a hair dryer for the heat shrink over 6 c batteries. 

I think I have a chock block kicking around, so I'm tempted to try that to make sure it works before embarking on the above.