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POST · 012026-07-10

EDPcable Engineering Team

How to Read a Cable Assembly Drawing

A cable assembly drawing looks like a wall of symbols and little tables, but break it apart and it is just a handful of fixed blocks: a wiring table that tells you which pin connects to which pin, reference designators that say which connector and which orientation, wire callouts that say which wire and what gauge, plus length tolerance, shield and twist, process and inspection notes, and a revision block. Once you can read those blocks, you and your supplier are talking about the same drawing, with far less room for misreading. This article walks a typical drawing in reading order, block by block, with a simplified from-to wiring table example — a practical reading method for buyers and engineers reviewing, revising and signing off drawings. It is written for the buyer.

POST · 022026-07-08

EDPcable Engineering Team

What Drives a Cable Assembly's MOQ and Lead Time — and How to Shorten Both

A cable assembly's MOQ is rarely a number the factory invents on the spot — it is pushed up, layer by layer, by the connector's minimum packaging, material availability, tooling and fixture amortization, and the cost of a line changeover. Lead time is four stretches of time strung together: prototyping, material procurement, test and verification, and logistics — and material procurement is usually the longest and the hardest to compress. This article unpacks what drives MOQ and lead time separately, explains why the prototype cadence differs from the production cadence, and offers four moves that actually shorten both: lean on standard connectors, pre-stock materials, freeze the revision early, and deliver in batches when capacity allows.

POST · 032026-07-07

EDPcable Engineering Team

eDP vs. DP: Embedded DisplayPort and External DisplayPort Are Not the Same Thing

eDP and DP differ by a single letter and share the same root — VESA's DisplayPort standard — but inside a device they do two different jobs. eDP is embedded DisplayPort, wired inside the device to connect the mainboard to the panel; DP is external DisplayPort, wired outside the device to connect the host to a standalone monitor. Their connectors, mechanical form, hot-plug behavior and power sidebands are entirely different: eDP is a custom internal harness, DP is a standardized external cable. This article lays out the differences in one table, explains why the two get confused, and shows from a cable-assembly standpoint which one your project actually needs.

POST · 042026-07-02

EDPcable Engineering Team

How to Write a Cable Assembly RFQ That Gets Quoted Right the First Time

When a cable assembly quote drags through round after round, the supplier usually isn't slow — the RFQ is just missing the few details that let anyone scope the build. An RFQ that can be quoted accurately on the first pass needs to spell out a handful of dimensions: a drawing or an old sample, full connector part numbers and pinout, length and routing, shielding, impedance and test requirements, the operating environment, quantities by phase, and any certification or documentation. This article walks through what each one should contain, shows how a few common gaps trigger predictable follow-up questions, gives you a copy-and-paste input checklist, and explains how to feed information in stages when you don't have it all yet — so the other side can still quote something. It's a practical guide written for the buyer.

POST · 052026-06-28

EDPcable Engineering Team

90Ω or 100Ω: Let the Protocol Pick Your Differential Impedance

Differential impedance is the characteristic impedance a differential pair sees inside a high-speed link, and the usual targets are 90Ω or 100Ω. The pattern is simpler than it looks: USB runs at 90Ω, while LVDS, eDP/DisplayPort, HDMI, MIPI D-PHY and Ethernet are essentially all 100Ω. Those 10Ω are worth getting right, because any impedance discontinuity creates reflections in the link, and the faster the data rate the more they show. This article lays out target impedances for the common protocols, explains how cable construction hits a target value, and makes the one rule that actually governs selection: set it from the protocol and the chip datasheets, never from a gut feel.

POST · 062026-06-22

EDPcable Engineering Team

I-PEX, Hirose and JAE Fine-Pitch Connectors: An Interface and Mating Map

On high-density display and micro-coaxial work, the connector interface almost always circles back to three Japanese houses — I-PEX, Hirose and JAE — and each one carries a long list of series, so just keeping the part numbers straight is a chore. This article ranks nobody. It lays the three interface families side by side on one table — by positioning, pitch range, wire-to-board vs. coaxial emphasis, and typical application — and then clears up the most misread idea in the field: what "mating-compatible" or an "equivalent direction" actually means (the U.FL / MHF pairing being the classic case). One line of intent: suffixes and mating are always settled by the original manufacturer's catalog and your own drawing — this piece only hands you an interface map to navigate selection.