Make your own aviation cable(s)

I didn’t want to wait any longer for replacement aviation cables to be available for my AC200 so I decided to make one (input side) myself. It turned out well and my first attempt was to simply duplicate the original OEM unit that came with the AC200. I will make some longer versions in the future. Links below are for the items needed to build. Fairly easy and just remember to always have the positive wire on Pin number 1 of the avaiation connector and positive on the flat side of the XT90.

The cable was a little hard to find (2 conductor pure copper, tinned in silicone insulation contained in round flexible insulation) but the one I chose is 14 ga which is one size larger than the OEM wires and is more flexible as well. I bought 30’ but you can purchase as little as 10’.

The gender of the Weipu connector contacts can be swapped from one piece to the next so you can use this connector for the aviation output or input cable. There is a small silver snap ring that you carefully pry out to remove the contacts to swap to the other housing.

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This little gem is worth its weight in gold when making cables but is not a necessity:

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Here is a pic of the included OEM cable and the cable I made. The cable I made is on the bottom. Notice the thicker wire cable. The OEM XT90 molded connector is definitely nicer, but I made do with a piece of heavy duty shrink tube which worked faily well

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Excellent write up @Scott-Benson. Thanks for sharing man

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Thanks Scott. I ordered the same XT connectors and wire to extend my solar cables and extend to the battery for 12V charging to a 12 to 24 DC to DC converter, but haven’t installed yet.

I would use a larger wire from the battery to the 12V to 24V converter. If the converter is with a couple of feet of the battery, you should be able to get away with 10ga. wire. If more than 2 feet, I would use 8ga or 6 ga. since that is where your largest load will be. The out put from the converter will be at 24 volts and you can then use lighter ga. wire. The closer you can mount the converter to your battery connection source the better.

Good idea. Shouldn’t the Bluetti only draw 8.5 A x 24V/12V = +/-17 Amps? At 20 Amps, and 15 ft length (the battery is actually between the seats in the floor on our Dodge ProMaster so I think the run will be about 10 -15 ft), the chart I have says 10 AWG is OK for less than 3% voltage drop, but since its a pretty short run, I can see upgrading to 8 AWG to be safe and maximize amps getting to Bluetti.

The Bluetti is going to pull 12 amps because that is the max charging amps allowed.

You are going to be pulling around 50 amps on the input side and 12 amps on the output side. The input side is the one that you want to focus the heavy gauge short run wired on. You can run the output on 10 to 12 ga at 12 amps over 15 feet no problem

You will also be seeing around a 575 watt charge rate. You want to verify that your wires are not getting warm as well as the converter itself

The price of these came down to the point where I may buy one:

Thank you for taking the time to write/share this. One week before our planned departure for a month-long trip as we were scrambling to finish Phase I of our campervan build, my husband realized he did not ordered the OEM cable when he thought he had. He ordered one but we knew it would not arrive in time. Your post plus our Prime membership saved us … 2.5 years after you posted it.

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@tcnkla Thats awesome news! And thank goodness your hubby is a little mcgiver! :rofl:

Cheers!