Replacing your Sidekick1/2 cable

I recently was surveying and after many hours of frustration, came to the conclusion that the SK@ had bad cable.  Well, after that was confirmed, I needed a cable right now.

 

I went on Amazon and purchased the Cable Creation’s CC1303.  It’s a 3 foot 240 watt cable that can charge the SK2 and use for surveying.  I chose three feet so that cable won’t grab door knobs, etc.  If you’ve done a lot of surveying, you know what I’m talking about.

 

I bought it and it didn’t fit snugly.  I decided to try this on my good old SK1 first – you know, the one with the rubber band holding the cable in since it wobbles…

 

 

Most people don’t have heat shrink lying around, but I do.  So I thought…. Hmmm….

 

 

I went through my collection and found some ½ inch “flat” wide heat shrink that would fit around the connector.  Its pretty simple math to find the circumference of the heat shrink that I used, if you need to go order some on Amazon.  I have a pack that has a dozen sizes, so I did trial and error until I found one that slipped over…  It was ½ an inch.  Then I cut in into ½ inch long pieces and tried my luck…

 

I put the yellow one on, heated it with a butane lighter and tested it.  It was still too small.  I then got the next size heat shrink – it is red, and slid some over….

 

 

It is 5/8 inch if you are wondering – but that is “flat”.  I cut it in pieces and heated it like this with a butane lighter.  It worked perfectly.

 

 

It took three pieces of red, all the same size, to make it big enough.  So four in all.  All I did was slide it on, heat, test fit, then do it again.

 

After the third one, I knew the 4^th was going to be the last, and I could see I would need to put some pressure to form fit it.  So I slid the last one on, heated it up and then pressed it against a hard surface with my scissors and fit it correctly.  If you try this, you will see what I’m talking about.  Trust me.

 

 

Now its nice and snug in the SK1, and so is the SK2’s newly modified cable.

 

 

Its even more snug than the OEM cable.  That’s a beautiful thing!

 

 

This is what it started out like – and as you can imagine, it was wobbling around and I didn’t even attempt to take it surveying.

 

 

This all started when I received a new SK2 and it didn’t work from day 1.  I had to sit there and play with it for 15 minutes while people were standing there waiting for me.  VERY FRUSTRATING – and for those of you who do surveys, you know what its like when you escort is standing there waiting on you.  I could not see to find a cable that I could order that would fit snugly – and I honestly thought that what I was ordering would have to be shaved a little bit.  But instead, I got a wobbly one and started to think what I could use.  Rubber bands?  RTV?  Duct tape?  After looking at the slot for the cable, I came up with the idea and it works.  I plugged my cable in and it connected within 15 seconds or so.  The SK1 cable works too – but I’ll probably keep that rubber band on there just in case.

 

If you have any part numbers for cables that match right up, please feel free to leave a reply!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virus-free.www.avg.com