Ok so I went home and had a go at soldering.

 

I think I am making a pigs ear of it as the CCA cable strands are really delicate and flimsy.

 

Also, bearing in mind, this was done on a kitchen table with plenty of light. Doing this on a ladder high up, might yield even worse results. 

 

(a) Be brutal, how bad is my soldering? Image below shows the 3 steps - twist the wire, make a hook, hook onto corresponding wire, add solder to bond together

 

(b) If my soldering is judged to be real bad, is using a crimp really not advisable?

 

Edited January 18, 20188 yr by MarkJohnson

Another point I omitted - the cut cable is not long enough to join via soldering. An extra 5mm or so in length is needed at points A and B as there isn't any extra pull available on the cable. As such, it looks like I am going to have to cut a small length of cable (marked X in image below) and use that to join cables A and B.

 

Is that likely to cause issues with the sensor?

No issue 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Soldering-Tutorial-Inline-Splicing/

1 hour ago, MarkJohnson said:

Ok so I went home and had a go at soldering.

 

I think I am making a pigs ear of it as the CCA cable strands are really delicate and flimsy.

 

Also, bearing in mind, this was done on a kitchen table with plenty of light. Doing this on a ladder high up, might yield even worse results. 

 

(a) Be brutal, how bad is my soldering? Image below shows the 3 steps - twist the wire, make a hook, hook onto corresponding wire, add solder to bond together

 

(b) If my soldering is judged to be real bad, is using a crimp really not advisable?

 

It will do

id neaten it up and use heatshrink

I would still go for crimping the cables.

Good morning gents! Well, somebody certainly had a fun Sat evening, I can tell you that much! 

 

Here is the end result. The system works fine. It doesn't look particularly tidy and I think the extension piece is a little long, but I prefer it to be lose and dangling (!) so there is no stress on the cables.

 

1. I stripped back the wiring

2. Slid on some 2mm diameter shrink wrap

3. Twisted each pair of wires together 

4. Added a small bit of solder

5. Used a heat gun on the shrinwrap

 

The only slight issue is that I was a bit overzealous with the gun in terms of temperatures and melted the plastic sheath of one of the wires, which has now exposed the metal in the cable so taped that up with a tiny bit of gaffa tape (I didn't have any electrical tape at the time). I have highlighted this with a blue square in the image.

 

The cupboard will be up against the wall, with a gap between wall / cupboard of about 8 to 10mm so the wiring will sit there quite happily.

 

Feedback (however critical) is welcome - can't improve ourselves without it!  

Edited January 22, 20188 yr by MarkJohnson

Hardcore

Al, hardcore as in not great quality?