Campagnolo EPS splice?

[Stefano]

Hi all,

Record and SR derailleurs are ridiculously expensive to replace. If I were to buy an athena EPS derailleur, and I cut off the end and spliced the wire with the SR connector from the broken RD, would that work satisfactorily? Anyone done this and can share the results?

I was also thinking of just splicing two ends of an extender harness together to make an "adapter" section so I don't lose the derailleur if a glob of solder goes askew. Any potential issues i should look out for on this?

If anyone knows the company that supplies the connector heads and/or the pinout, I could also just buy the connectors and wires and get it all professionally done.

Thanks!

[fobtions]

you can try jumping the wires before you do any cutting or splicing. tiny jumper wires from the R/SR eps battery to athena RD.
i don't believe those connectors are available anywhere outside of the factory.

HTH

[joeyb1000]

you can try jumping the wires before you do any cutting or splicing. tiny jumper wires from the R/SR eps battery to athena RD.
i don't believe those connectors are available anywhere outside of the factory.

HTH

I think this is a better idea than ruining a derailleur. I would suggest buying a record and Athena cable extension kit, and then splice those.
Love to know if it works.

[Miller]

Stefano, have a look through this recent thread.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=145276

[Stefano]

Excellent thread!! Exactly what I was looking for, guess my searching skills aren't quite good enough.

TL;DR for anyone who doesn't want to look through that thread- the internal wires are color coded and all match each other in both Athena/Chorus and Record/SR, so it should be a simple and easy splicing operation. Still no word if you can buy the connectors aftermarket, which means I will be shelling out $$$ for the Campagnolo brand extension cables. Still better than buying a record RD!

[userfriendly]

I must admit I didn't even bother looking if the connectors were available somewhere. I did have a good look on Ebay and avoided paying full price for the extension cables, but frankly I don't see the point in doing even that in hindsight, we're still going to cut up cables that we've paid lots of tenners for. But it's for science, so it's all good.

Let me know how you get on with the derailleur replacement. I'm going to be testing an adapter for the interface/shifter connection soon, just need to make some time for it.

[saverin]

I got my hands on some Record EPS derailleurs and a V3 power unit and interface. I'm not keen on spending $400+ on shifters, so I'll be picking up some Chorus EPS shifters quite shortly here.

I also plan on splicing the Chorus connectors onto the V3 interface, so I'll be following along closely and I'll add in whatever info I can provide along the way.

I am fortunate enough to already have some chorus connectors from some donated TT shifters, and I'm now thinking about where it would be best to splice the chorus connectors onto the V3 interface...I'm hoping to keep this looking as tidy as possible. Thoughts?

[userfriendly]

I figured it would be safest (also in terms of resale value) not to do the splice on a cable actually attached to a component. That's why I intend to make little adapters out of extension cable sets and the two v1 interfaces that I eviscerated for science. These adapters can then be tested with existing hardware, e.g. Chorus shifter -> Chorus/Record adapter -> Record/Chorus adapter -> Chorus interface.

[saverin]

I'm not too concerned about the resale value, as even with buying a brand new V3 interface and Record shifters, i'd still be ahead.

Where were you thinking of hiding the adapters/extra cable? Inside the shifter? They're not the smallest of connectors, so this has been one area i'm not 100% sure how to proceed.

[userfriendly]

That was my first thought, yes. I'm hoping there is sufficient space for one more connector and a bit of extra cable. I plan to test this with Athena EPS ergos - if there is a difference in which ergo bodies offer more space, I'd expect it to be them rather than H11 EPS ones. More worried about the part with the spliced wires, I imagine it will get a bit crammed in there.

If that doesn't work (either for both or just the H11), both bikes I'm intending to do this on have handle bars with internal routing. So I can just make the adapter longer rather than shorter, and hide the connector in the bars.

[Miller]

I don't think you'll be able to hide the splice inside the shifter body unless you have the skills of a brain surgeon. The space in the shifter body for the cable junction is very cramped. Here are some photos to show what I mean.

[userfriendly]

I'm not so sure, looking at that last picture especially. From memory of doing about half a dozen installs, I think there should be enough space.

That said, the more I think about where to place the splice the more attractive becomes the "long adapter" option of hiding the connector in the bars. My only concern there would be the rattle potential.

[saverin]

It is done. Chorus Shifters and V3 interface/battery. Using extra Record shifter female connectors, made adapters to connect Chorus shifters to V3 interface. Connected everything up and no issues as of yet. We managed to get the adapters to fit inside the shifter body without too much fuss. Will be installing the groupset on the bike this week hopefully.

[userfriendly]

Most excellent! Lovely to hear the ergo bodies provide enough room.

[saverin]

I don't doubt that you could make the adaptors smaller, but this worked well enough. Time will tell how effective our water-proofing efforts will be.