# Is shielded cable effective on SwitchBlox Rugged?

**URL:** <https://forum.botblox.org/t/is-shielded-cable-effective-on-switchblox-rugged/156>\
**Category:** BotBlox Hardware\
**Tags:** switchblox-rugged\
**Created:** [February 23, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://forum.botblox.org/t/is-shielded-cable-effective-on-switchblox-rugged/156 "2024-02-23T14:55:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![botblox\_admin](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.botblox.org/botblox_admin/32/1_2.png) [@botblox\_admin](https://forum.botblox.org/u/botblox_admin)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://forum.botblox.org/t/is-shielded-cable-effective-on-switchblox-rugged/156/1 "2024-02-23T14:55:12Z")

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I was wondering if shielded cables effective as shielded protection on SwitchBlox Rugged. I have last revision of switch who only have 4 pins connectors and saw that A/B/C revision have 5 pins with ground.

Does it bring more protection to have shielded cables on F revision ?

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**Author:** ![josh\_elijah](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.botblox.org/josh_elijah/32/568_2.png) [@josh\_elijah](https://forum.botblox.org/u/josh_elijah)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://forum.botblox.org/t/is-shielded-cable-effective-on-switchblox-rugged/156/2 "2024-02-23T14:55:35Z")

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In nearly all cases, having a shielded cable is better than having a non-shielded cable because it provides protection against stray electromagnetic radiation.

However, for most of our customers’ applications they are connecting to devices very close by, therefore shielding is not a huge issue on the cable. In such situations, adding a shield increases the bend radius of the cable which makes it harder to route. Usually they prefer just keeping the cable without a shield and keeping it away from any potential EMI sources.

The general rule is that if the cable is longer than half a meter, and you expect to see a lot of EMI then a shield is useful to have.

However, you also have to consider what to connect the shield to. New versions of SwitchBlox Rugged no longer have a connection for the shield, so you have to connect it on the other end or some other ground point in your system.

If you share a little bit more about your system, like the type of devices and how close the cable will be to them, we can provide some application suggestions for you.