All it does is guarantee that when the wire does break, it'll break at the end of the RTV. It also removes the strain relief provided by the insulation crimp and the connector housing, and takes away some room for the cable to flex, and it'll make the wire break with fewer stress cycles.
It is cheaper than the proper crimper (they run several hundred $ to low thousand $ for a certified crimp!)
Tim.
Are the board layouts set in stone? We've all seen those flat cables in printers, right? They flex forever. Now, here's my crazy idea - have some of that custom-made, in an 'L' shape, and mount the connectors on the boards at right angles to each other. Come off one board, make the first loop, take the 'L', do the next loop, and attach to the other board. That should cover at least two axes, and maybe even Z! ;-)
Good Luck! Rich
Got any pix of this critter, or is it pretty much theoretical?
Are the legs really like human legs, or are they more like insectoid, or maybe even reptilian? If they're mammalian-style, then you shouldn't need much motion on the yaw axis. And if the wires really loop over the top of the "hip", it seems like a flexible ribbon like in a printer would be just the ticket - you could incorporate them into the styling/ esthetics. ;-)
Good Luck! Rich
I wouldn't recommend heat shrink as a "strain relief" - it's too stiff; all it will do is move the stress point to the end of the HS tube. If the pins are crimped properly, the wire's own insulation is the strain releif - the "insulation support" part of the pin doesn't grab the insulation too tightly, so the stress kind of gets distributed.
Another thing to look for is high-strand wire. Like, instead of 7x30, see if you can find some 19x38 - it'll give a lot longer life flexing. Or even that braided crap they use in telephone patch cords and on the old-style 2K magnetic headphones.
Now there's an idea - a coiled phone cord arching over each joint....
;-)
Good Luck! Rich
Go towards the modular plug! Go towards the modular plug!
Bell Corp put a lot of thought and common sense into the design. Excellent strain relief. Standard silver cord is as you note quite flexible. Jacks are available that anchor on PCB. Crimpers are cheap and everywhere. (Contrast with the $1000 you can easily drop on a certified crimper for 1.25mm or 1.5mm pitch discrete wire connectors.)
Gotcha for the OP is that the jacks are pretty big for a PCB compared to what he has available. Jack is also definitely not low-profile.
Tim.
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