Do you think splicing 100' of wire onto a GTO exit wand would work?

I'd be looking for some shielded CAT5 (STP) stranded wire, which shouldwork OK. I've got the cable the OP wants, but I suspect he's a long ways from me!

The wire sounds like two pair direct burial phone line. We use it on irrigation systems. Have you tried the local telephone company?

The trouble is, we don't know which group the OP is reading. We don't know which group gets the "post" and which gets the cross post.

I used to say which group I was posting from when I crosspostd, but no one else seems to think of that.

Direct burial telephone wire is solid, not stranded. It is usually thinner, like 22 gauge as well.

Interesting. I don't know if the local phone company sells to people, but I can ask.

I have a propane torch, a smaller butane torch with soldering tips, and the Weller soldering station. I'm not all that good (I always seem to melt the solder instead of heating the wires) but I'd consider myself ok with solder.

I could also look for an electrical connection type box (like the ones used with the water sprinklers) and that way it would be obvious to all, even any new owners.

I think I'll solder in a compatible wire after finding that scotch 23 in a local hardware store. My home depot didn't have it.

Yes There are overhead power lines. Why do you ask?

I wonder if it matters. What is the fundamental difference between how a solid wire acts versus multi-stranded wire in this type of low voltage (8-32v) and very low current (1.5ma) application?

They sold to our organization once. Those half-round plastic tubes (half-tubes) 8 feet long that they use. But we had a more comprehensive arrangement with them before hand. And we had to buy a box at a time, maybe 100 per box.

Four conductor shielded wire shoudlnt' be easy to get.

In addition, what I said in another post, if you have a half inch with no shielding, I doubt it matters. Or you can take 2 or 3 inches from your 100 foot piece, and remove the shielding from that and wrap it around the splice area. Soldering it at both ends would be optimal. But it's not like there will be big metal things running over the splice area inducing the gate to open. Even bicycles are less likely to ride on the lawn than on the driveway.

| Do you think I can find a 4-conductor shielded 16 AWG cable splice kit at | ACE, OSH, or Home Depot? (I'll try later today.)

I doubt it.

Here is the kit I used to splice the cable to a similar vehicle detection wand about 15 years ago. It has worked fine since:

Note that this was just the first Google hit and you may be able to find it as a Winland product for less. Moreover, Winland probably doesn't actually make it so you might find a generic for even less again.

Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

I like an electric soldering iron for soldering wires. It's not like soldering metal gutters. :)

After 40 years I often melt the solder directly, but if you make sure it's hot before taking away the soldering iron, it's fine.

I wouldn't bother.

Some other websites had 50 or 100 roll minimums!

The docs mentioned power lines. but if they are overhead they are probably too far away to matter.

This has gone on long enough.

As is true of most companies, the company selling this product is unable to give factual, useful information to the customer. (What else is new?) There is no reason why the people in this group -- or any other group -- should be obliged to make up for its failure to do so.

It seems to me that the manufacturer should have supplied information about selecting the appropriate length of cable, according to the vehicle, the vehicle owner's needs, etc. It apparently did not. If the customer makes a mistake, then the company should DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, as I've suggested.

If the company won't, then the owner has no recourse but to purchase a new cable or sensor-wand system.

I don't see why this group should be expected to analyze an unfamiliar product and provide useful troubeshooting/modification/repair information, when the manufacturer won't. This problem cannot be new to the company. It ought to have some mechanism in place for resovling such issues. Apparently, it is too stupid to.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

I just spoke with a customer-service rep at GTO.

He said that they care about their customers and want them to be happy. You should return the wand to GTO to confirm that it's working correctly. If you need a longer cable, they will make some accommodation (he didn't say what, and I didn't press him) so that you can have the longer cable.

Sometimes it's just a matter of knowing how to present your problem.

I hope this resolves it.

I don't see the company at fault in the initial purchase. Also, only slightly at fault for conflicting advice from the telephone operator on splicing (which differed from the technician's advice, which is what I'd consider the be the accurate one...)

If you think that companies should cover all their customer's errors and mistakes then I'd suggest you start a company and make that a feature of your operation. Maybe you'll have great success. But my experience, as a business man, has been that some people make errors, and it makes little sense to expect someone else to pay for their errors.

As to not seeing 'why this group should...' realize that is the reason this group exists! After all, it is not called 'alt.home.repair.get.maker.to.replace.it' or 'sci.electroncs.leverage.the.company'. We concentrated on repairing the problem. Not trying to figure a way or justification to make the supplier (who did nothing wrong) to replace a product that was not defective or flawed.

Please don't feed meathead the troll. He offers no advice just a total waste of bandwidth trolling for his 15 seconds of fame.

I don't. But I think it should make an effort.

See the posting "GTO wand problem resolved (???)". I might have solved the problem.

Because everyone is too busy writing one line answers to read what you posted.

There are currently 47 messages in this thread, which is a bit much to read. I've only read about half, with nothing really interesting (except my own postings).

That would be too easy, obvious, no fun, doesn't involve repair, lacking in entertainment value, and not much of a learning experience. I also assumed that he's already tried to do that.

The pickup coil and cabling appear to be a matched set where the cable is an integral part of the tuned circuit. However, at $200 for a coil and roll of cable, I would think there would be sufficient profit to allow for an ocassional courtesy exchange. Whether courtesy is all that common is debatable as companies that have liberal return policies tend to have it abused and overused.

GTO has told me that if the OP contacts them, and returns the original wand for a checkout (and it's working correctly), they will make some sort of accommodation, because they want happy customers.

I've stated this in another posting in this thread.

Why not just replace the whole wire from the control box to the sensor wand? Then theres no splices in the ground.