1 (edited by notpace 2010-01-01 15:38:55)

Topic: Making a significantly longer chumbilical cord

Hi Everybody!

I just got my Chumby Guts assembled, and I absolutely love it!  There is one thing, though - I'm thinking about options for embedding most or all of it in my IKEA lack coffee table.

My first thought was to just embed the whole thing in the table, but I realized that I would lose the accelerometer functionality, and I would have to sit in the same location on my couch if I wanted to use the chumby.  Instead, I think it would be better to embed part of it in the table.  The easiest way to go about this would be to create a longer chumbilical cord and make a small enclosure for the motherboard/wifi riser/lcd screen unit.

I've found some cables online that seem to fit the bill, but they are rather expensive.

If I'm making my own chumbilical cord, allelectronics has a great deal on 26-pin headers, and there are a number of sites where I can get .1" flat ribbon cable.

There are two things I'm not too clear about, so I figured I would ask around:
1) How much interference will a 3-foot (or so) cord create?  Should I plan on getting some copper-braided shield to cut that down?
2) For the same 3-foot cable, will I have to worry about the internal resistance in the wires?

I know that some people have created slightly longer chumbilical cords, but I'd really like this to know if a 3-5 foot cable would be feasible.