Bike electrics is quite a niche area. Economically, it does not make much sense to optimize connectors specifically for such a market. In practice we have to repurpose connectors optimized for something else. That leads to maybe more struggle than elsewhere. To ensure strain relief on a bike, I now start putting a piece of a shift cable into the heatshrink sleeve.
That is the issue, isn't it? The bicycle electronics area is a niche and there are no good solutions. I've often wondered why no one has tried taking a Di2 extension cable and cutting it half, using the cut ends on the permanent connections and the Di2 connector as the disconnect point. We know the Di2 connectors survive on a bike, and are nice and small, but I don't have a clue if the wire size inside them would be adequate for the current being run.
Originally Posted by
steelbikeguy
I just noticed the reference to blocked wire. It's probably overkill for bikes, but I have used it on construction equipment... some of the connectors end up under water for prolonged periods, despite the gear not being expressly designed for that. I've seen damage where water did wick up the strands of a length of water, cause corrosion of the circuit board, leading to the failure of the board.
One factor was that the electronic device had a volume of air in it. As things heated up and cooled down, it acted as an air pump, pulling in air or water via the wire strands. The device had a "pigtail" of wire that connected it to the outside world. In retrospect, we should have used a bulkhead connector to avoid that sort of problem.... although there are potential problems with that too.
Ahhh... part of the fun of design is finding out all of the ways to get yourself in trouble!
Steve in Peoria
Nice to see someone has fought the same issues. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who's seen them. A couple of engineers at my company recently retire. Them, myself, and 1 other engineer were the corporate subject matter experts on connector issues. I'm now trying to train up a few others but I doubt I'll get it done before I depart the company in December. I feel sorry for the engineer that will be left. I had a engineer who couldn't believe that water would actually wick thru a wire. I told him he either needed to vent his electronics housing or use blocked wire to stop the water ingress issue he was seeing. He didn't listen and a customer experienced some spectacular failures due to water ingress into the electronics. We are now in the middle of a recall to replace 12,000 units with units that have a GoreTex vent.