MS3-Pro wiring help

[chips60bug]

Hi guys,
After a very disappointing driving season this year, my MS3 Pro'd car is parked for the winter. I have been dealing with comms issues, and major AMP connector related problems as well. I can't help but think that most of these issues are very much my own fault. So I am starting over with that end of the harness. I built my harness from scratch, and ended up messing up a lot of the pins on the amp connector due to inexperience with them on my own part. I repaired them as good as possible, but am writing the current AMPs off. I am ordering new ones with pins, and will be re-terminating the end of the harness. While I am at it, I would like to replace the USB and DB9 lines that I installed the first time. Both are currently not shielded and about 8 feet long running alongside a couple switched and analog inputs as well as eachother. I am sure that isn't helping my communication problems in the slightest.

I am looking to see what everyone else uses when building harnesses from scratch as far as these communication cables are concerned. Mouser links would be nice if at all possible, since I am building up a decent shopping cart there at the moment. Thanks for any help that is offered!

[chips60bug]

Am i really the only one that has built their own Pro harness?

[jsmcortina]

I built an AMPSEAL to DB37 adapter harness before any MS3-Pro harnesses were available. My only problem was not having the correct crimp tool.

James

[Hey_Allen]

I actually started playing with the AmpSeal connector before I saw them show up on the MS Pro, but the crimper listed through Mouser is the pneumatic crimper for a production line, and extremely expensive.
I scrounged one after playing with a related crimper at work, and verifying that a hand crimper did work on the pins.

As far as USB cables go, you can look for shielded twisted pair USB cables, and even possibly just bob the end off of a commercially made shielded cable, but that still leaves you with the issue of USB being more susceptible to interference, and your routing possibly being less than optimum in running that line along noise generating wire runs.

I'm sure that others have more experience with this though, as my MS is still a bench queen, and my car is laughing at me and developing injection problems with the old system to taunt me for not installing the MS yet.

[chips60bug]

Thanks for the input gentleman!
Fortunately my issues were not at the crimp. It was more at the pins and the springs that grip the pins. I had to take the plugs apart a few times and ended up messing up lots of the pins while trying to get everything to line up nicely. That problem is easy enough to get around. As i mentioned earlier my usb and serial lines were unshielded along their entire runs. I found a nice usb type b socket with 10 feet of shieled wire attached to the end of it. I'm hoping this will provide the protection i need. I'll be building my serial line with a pair of shielded pairs as well. Hopefully my issues will go away.

Do CAN lines need to be shielded? I am connected to an iox.

[racingmini_mtl]

Do CAN lines need to be shielded?

No. But having a twisted pair would be a good idea.

Jean

[chips60bug]

Thanks Jean, thats what i assumed, current setup is a twisted pair, non shielded.