Ken (Customer) asked a question.
I keep running into what should be a common problem, and don't know of a standard solution.
You have a component (light, sensor, etc), that comes with either a very short cable, or short wire leads (no terminals, no box for terminals, no standard connector). The component is made such that opening its case isn't practical, so you can't remove their short cable. The component has to be mounted somewhere outside of an enclosure, and you have to extend the cable.
How to attach a new cable onto the tiny original cable, while keeping the whole thing professional looking, resistant to wear and tear, preferably sealed, and not taking up a lot of room?
I usually reach for crimp butt splicers and heat shrink tubing, but that looks amaturish, and will be the failure point as soon as the cable gets snagged on something. Overwrapping everything in a braided sleeve helps with the looks but not much else. I suppose I could use flex conduit, I haven't tried that.
If there is room, I could mount a small enclosure just for the connections, but there usually isn't.
Field wireable connectors make everything look tidy, and should be sealed, but are somewhat expensive, and seem overkill if they are likely to remain connected for a long time.. and most importantly, seem to be limited in which kind are available.
Is there a obvious solution I am overlooking?
If the wiring ends up in conduit, use a junction box.
Otherwise, field wireable connectors.
Solder instead of butt splices.
Typically you would order sensors with M8 or M12 connectors on them instead of built in cable, then buy a cable in whatever longer length you need. They sell the M12 cables up to about 82ft, and you can either take them in to a "cable entry block" with grommets or you can cut the end the length you need and put a field wireable M12 connector on it that plugs in to your control panel somewhere. You could also install multi-port distribution blocks close to a group of sensors if you wanted.
If the device has a built-in cable, I install a field-wireable connector onto it and connect to it with a terminated cable or another field-wireable connector. I don't find them too expensive from AutomationDirect.
Otherwise, sometimes I use Enclosure-Mounted Terminal Blocks from McMaster.
I use parallel solder joints with heat shrink on each conductor, and heat shrink for the outside of the cable, matching color if possible.