nubbinator Cable Review

[CPTBadAss]

Light Purple MDPC-X USB A to Mini B Cable from Nubbinator.

I recently got my hands on one of nubbinator’s cables and realized that I had a TON of custom cables now. Not including nubbinator’s, I’ve currently got:

Whiskerbox Cable

1) Whiskerbox USB A to mini B cable with neon pink/blue Techflex sleeving. This was a surprise from Glissant <3.

Mimic Cable

2) Mimic USB A to mini B with Razzamatazz/Strawberry Shortcake paracord sleeving (from mistakemistake, pre-tjcaustin Mimic)

Mimic Cable

3) Mimic USB A to Filco connector with B-Spec paracord sleeving

So needless to say, I have a lot of cables in beautiful colors . And as some of you might know, I also write a bit so I’m constantly rotating between keyboards and I feel like I really put the cables through their paces.

Mimic Cable Wear vs No Wear

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Sleeving Types
• Sleeving Type Table
• Sleeving Mini Review
• Nubbinator Cable Review
• Final Thoughts

Before I start with my thoughts on nubbinator’s cable, I thought I’d do a quick primer on the various cable sleeving options I’ve encountered. In my possession I have the following sleeving types:

• TechFlex
• Paracord
• MDPC
• Bitspower
• Kobra HD
• ModDIY

Nubbinator was kind enough to give me a small sample of other types of sleeving to test how they would feel:

Cable Sleeving Sample

Each of these cable sleeves has a different feel. I’ve rated them on both a hardness (in terms of feel) and flexibility. The scale is from 1-5 with 5 being the hardest/least flexible and 1 being softest/most flexible. In my head that layout works best for me.

Sleeve Type|	Hardness|	Flexibility
Techflex	1	2
Paracord	2	2
MDPC	3	3
Bitspower	3	3
Kobra	4	4
ModDIY	4	3

My thoughts on each of the sleeving types I have:

Techflex: This sleeving is a very, very soft fabric material. It almost reminds me of the feel of a t-shirt. It’s also extremely flexible and the colors are very vibrant. I’m also not sure how the paracord unravels but the Techflex unravels very easily and is hard to cut cleanly. Overall I really like this sleeving.

Paracord: The sleeving feels like a hard version of TechFlex; it’s another fabric like material. Its feeling reminds me of bungee cords. It’s obviously the same thing that those “survival bracelets” are made out of. I love the colors in this sleeving as well. This is probably my favorite cable sleeving.

MDPC: This material is hard. It’s a woven plastic material; the weave reminds me of a wicker basket but it’s very tight. If you’ve ever had a plastic zipper on a hoodie or a piece of clothing, it feels like a softer/more flexible version of that. If the cable I have is a representative of the other colors available for this sleeving, then I would say the colors are very promising. The purple on the cable matches the GMK purple mods very well. I like this sleeving.

Bitspower: This is almost identical to MDPC.  The weave is tight like MDPC as well. However the sleeving feels less flexible than MDPC. I don’t like how inflexible this sleeving is. I prefer MDPC. From nubbinator’s thread, it seems like the Bitspower sleeving only comes in solid colors. It looks nice but I prefer MDPC over this.

Kobra HD: The material feels very hard and the flexibility is very low. Yet again, this is a woven plastic sleeving. However, the sleeving weave isn’t that tight and you can see the cable underneath it. I know that nubbinator has had other cables where he had two types of sleeving, one on top of each other. This achieves this amazing glowing look. This might be cool if you have two sleeves on top of each other but it looks kinda goofy without it. This is meh.

ModDIY: One final plastic weaved sleeving type. This has some pretty cool striped colors but it’s very hard and inflexible.  Not my favorite sleeving.

With all that being said, I’ll finally offer my thoughts on nubbinator’s cables. He uses MDPC, FTWPC, paracord, and ModDIY sleevings. The cable I have is a light purple MDPC with the snap on end housings. The snap on ends feel more secure to me than say the stock Leopold cable ends.

Mini B USB End

USB A End

You can see that the ends are a little pinched in but I don’t think that matters too much. The ends are very secure; I can pull on the cable instead of the housing in order to remove the cables. My Filco cable had an issue with the housing where the housing slid off without the internals. I haven’t had this issue with any other cable I own including this one.

The sleeving itself feels very durable and I love the color on it. I usually swap keyboards a lot so the cable has felt like it’s stood up to the various abuses I subject it to. The length is fine and the connector seems to be holding up fine. It definitely delivers enough power as well. I was having problems with the Quickfire TK not drawing enough power to light the board with certain cables and my USB hub.

However, there are a few issues with the cable that I didn’t like. The sleeving is not that flexible so it will resist my efforts to bend it into place as I try and plug it into certain boards. Boards that have the cutout instead of having the USB connection flush with the back edge require that I bend the cable into place.

USB Cable Cutout in a 700R

USB Cable hookup in a Pure

When I try to bend the cable, it fights me so hard. It’s a bit of a PITA to plug it in honestly. Another thing that is really weird to me is that the cable didn’t have any memory in it from shipping but it seems to have memory once I have it plugged in. So I struggled with cable management with this cable.


The other issue I had is when I still had the QFR with greens assembled and before I filed out the back of the 700R cutout so that it would more easily accommodate cables, the cable was too large diametrically and would case the keyboard to sit unevenly on the table.

Overall, I really like the cables that nubbinator makes. It compares pretty favorably to my favorite cable, which is the Strawberry Mimic cable. It has a great color, solid construction, and a proper length. However, the MDPC cable has odd memory issues and could be a little more flexible. If you’re not constantly swapping keyboards out like I do, meaning multiple times a day, this would be a great cable for you. nubbinator's cable thread can be found here.

[Sifo]

cool beans

[CPTBadAss]

cool beans

How new are you?

[nubbinator]

It's interesting to hear your take on the different sleeving types.  It really shows how subjective the different sleeving materials are.  You seem to like paracord, where I generally find myself hating it.  I also generally find the Bitspower to be the least flexible of the bunch, but with the best coverage.  MDPC is definitely the most flexible, but I find it has the biggest gaps in the weave.  You can see this in the difference between the orange Bitspower and orange MDPC sleeved cables I've done and magenta MDPC cables.  You can clearly see white peeking through the MDPC, but not the Bitspower.  The Kobra is kind of a midway between the two, more flexible than Bitspower and slightly better coverage than MDPC (at least with the purples and blues I've had), but not as flexible as MDPC and not as good of coverage as Bitspower.  All of them are better than PET though.  I refuse to use PET because it's thin and has horrible coverage and has significant of bleed through from the underlying cable.  PET may be cheaper, but it's not worth the drop in quality.

And that issue with the cutout is definitely one that I've debated about.  I generally make my cables (except the handful of paracord ones) with 24g wire for the +5v and GND instead of the standard 28g. It makes them a little thicker.  It's something I've debated about.  I could switch to a lower guage wire, but it's a  less durable cable (IMO) yet fits easier into channels and might be a little more flexible, though I think the sleeving material affects flexibility the most.  Paracord is your most flexible while the plastic type sleeving will be a little stiffer.

Oh, and the two tone cables I've done have actually been with FTWPC sleeving that I got.  I find it has the biggest gaps in the weave and tends to work the best for it.

[mashby]

Nice review and very helpful for someone not familiar with all of the different sleeving options out there (like me). Thank you.

[codyeatworld]

I found this pretty helpful cause I don't know anything about the materials out there.

I really like the cable nubbinator gave me! Just saying!

[Thimplum]

Nice... PARACORD FTW!

[megaxpop]

nice review! i will buy some new cables for my keyboards!

[reiuorw]

nice review!

hardness and flexibility scale chart is really helpful.

[Badwrench]

Excellent review CPT.  I agree with Nubbinator in it being interesting finding out what type of materials different people prefer.  Most read about the different types (paracord/pvc), and within the pvc, the different thickness and weaves.  I have been doing sleeving of computer builds for a few years, and started with paracord as I liked the softness of it, but now prefer the smooth arcs of the mdpc.  You noted this distinct characteristic of the loss of the ability to route the cable as you normally do.  I have been sleeving my headphones with mdpc because of that ability to keep the cable straight (keeps it from tangling). 

Also, as Nubbinator noted, the size of the wire has a significant role in how the cable will look and feel.  Some of the cables I have done were with smaller cables and the color of the mdpc covered the cable completely and tightly with made the cable hold its shape more, while sleeving a larger cable with the same sleeving left me with a soft feeling cable that had little to no memory. 

All in all, variation is the spice of life.  Enjoy all the different offerings from so many great vendors. 

[CPTBadAss]

I think an MDPC sleeve on a headphone wire would be amazing. And for most people, it's probably awesome for their keyboard cable. But since I'm always swapping stuff out and moving it, it's a bit of a pain. That being said, I don't want people to get the impression that I didn't like the cable nubbinator made. I just wanted to provide my opinion on it, good or bad. Thanks for reading everyone

[reiuorw]

CPT, did you tried Blutack on fc700r? I'm wondering if it is works well.

[SkyCorrigan2]

Do all colors available come Filco compatible?

[CPTBadAss]

CPT, did you tried Blutack on fc700r? I'm wondering if it is works well.

No, haven't had the chance to try this yet.

Do all colors available come Filco compatible?

I'm not understanding your question. If you're asking if the sleeving is all Filco cable compatible then yes. The sleeving you can buy and put over most cables if you get the right size. If you're asking what cables nubbinator will make, I'm not sure. Go to the thread I've linked and ask?

[SpAmRaY]

Do all colors available come Filco compatible?

I think any usb cable can be made in whatever color material he has available.