The Cable Code

Decode a cable type designation (DIN VDE, HAR, BS/IEC, NEC, TS, UTE, CEI-UNEL and 63 more of its 70 coding systems, plus LAN and fibre) into its layers: conductor, insulation, screen, armour, sheath, with the source behind each symbol. Deterministic, no LLM.

Design and size a cable (power, control, LAN, coaxial, fibre) from a sentence (any site language, e.g. "3-core collective screen 12/20 kV 3x95/25 Al, longitudinally watertight") or a spec: every layer's thickness with its source (IEC 60502, HD 603 / 620, BS, EN 50525, NEC / UL and more; IEC 60228), the overall diameter, the designation and the decoder's reading of it, and the estimated weight, bending radius, pulling force, IEC 60757 colours and MV field stress with their sources; current, voltage drop and short-circuit ratings; a bare designation works as the sentence; optional XML, DXF, SVG, CSV, GLB, STEP (3D CAD) and a PDF datasheet. Deterministic, no LLM; a nominal calculation, not a datasheet.

Find the equivalents of a power cable in other countries' standards ("the Dutch equivalent of this Swedish cable"): the decoded cable is rebuilt under each target rule set (IEC 60502, HD 603, HD 620 sections J/M/D/C/K, BS 5467/6724/7846/6622, EN 50618, HD 627) with the same conductor, section, cores, voltage, screen, armour and sheath, then compared layer by layer with the source of every value. Verdict per standard: equivalent, close (with the differences) or none (with the reason), and the name in that country's letters where sourced. Deterministic, no LLM. Never a statement of interchangeability: the buyer's specification decides.

Look up a bare overhead line conductor (AAC, AAAC, ACSR, ACSR/AW: aluminium or alloy wires, with or without a zinc coated or aluminium-clad steel core): send its code, e.g. "242-AL1/39-ST1A" (EN 50182:2001 4.5) or an ACSS code "401-AL0/28-MEHST" (FprEN 50540 clause 4), or an EN 50182 Annex F country table ("F.19") with an optional row. Each row comes back as the standard prints it, with its table, page and country (seen standard): stranding, areas, diameters, mass, rated tensile strength and d.c. resistance at 20 °C, the clauses every conductor keeps (diameter and mass tolerances, lay), and the ACSS build of the same stranding by the final draft FprEN 50540:2009-08 (mass, strength, resistance, each with its clause, seen draft; core picks the core wire). Use it to read an overhead conductor code or compare one country's table with another's; for insulated cables use decode_cable_code. Priced like a decode, on the same free allowance. Deterministic, no LLM.

Check a power cable against a standard's nominal rules: a designation with size and voltage, a designer design, or the construction a maker's datasheet or tender offer states (layers with nominal and minimum thicknesses, screen and armour data). Rule sets: IEC 60502-1 / -2, IEC 60228, HD 603 3-G / 5-G, HD 620 10-J / M / D / C / K, BS 5467, BS 6724, BS 7846, BS 6622, IS 694, IS 1554-1 / -2, IS 7098-1 / -2, IS 8130, or "auto" for the standards the cable claims. Every rule with required, found, pass / fail / not checkable and its source (standard, edition, clause or table, page, how firmly seen). Deterministic, no LLM. A check against nominal rules, not a certificate or a type test.

Read a power cable datasheet (a maker PDF, an https link to one, or pasted datasheet or tender text) into constructions: every cable size it states with voltage, cores, conductor, each layer with its nominal and smallest thickness, screen and armour data, diameters and the claimed standards, each with the page and the row it was read from, the values that could not be read and the ones the reader is unsure of. The reading is done by an LLM (Claude) and shown as read; it decides nothing. Each construction is ready for check_cable / POST /api/v1/check, and with standard set every row is checked by the deterministic rule engine in the same call, each rule with its clause and source. Review the values before relying on a verdict.

Read a project or tender document (a purchase or project specification, a tender volume, a GTP / data schedule; a PDF of up to 80 pages and 20 MB, or its text) and answer what it asks for: every cable it lists built as a design by the designer's rules and checked against its rule set, the required / offered schedule beside the document's own required values with their pages, each requirement mapped to a requirement card or listed as having none, the conflicts (one parameter with two values, a printed construction against a requirement, a value against the standard the document names, a voltage outside IEC 60038, a schedule row with no construction) and the missing sections. An LLM (Claude) copies the document's values and pages; it decides nothing: every design, check, conflict and gap is the deterministic rules with their sources. A reading takes up to a few minutes, so the call starts a job and answers a poll link; the reading is held in memory for one hour, then gone, and the file is never stored. The poll answer (thecablecode.tender/v1) has job, status (running, done or failed), pages and, when done, the reading; a failed paid reading starts again with the same file at no charge, and the same file within the hour is the same job, not charged twice. For one cable use design_cable or check_cable; for one maker's datasheet, extract_datasheet. Here the document's text; a PDF goes to POST /api/v1/tender. Always paid: $4.00 up to 20 pages, $2.00 for each further 10 pages begun, up to 80 pages.

Write the cable specification for a tender: one cable, or a project of up to 30 cables, each as design_cable takes it (a sentence, a bare designation, a spec or a design), plus the project's requirements (rodent, termite, UV, cold, oil, watertightness, fire, armour and more, each with the construction chosen to meet it). Returns, per cable, the specification in tender order (scope, standards, construction with each layer's thickness and source, additional requirements with their test methods, tests, marking, drums, documents, deviations) as Markdown and plain text, and the required / offered schedule (GTP) as CSV and as JSON rows: REQUIRED filled from the design with each value's source, OFFERED left for the bidder. The same text a Pro member downloads from the designer, written by the same code. Deterministic, no LLM; a draft to check against the editions in force.

List what the cable designer builds, before calling design_cable: presets[] (power, MV, HV, North American, building wire, cords, control, LAN, coaxial, fibre), each with its id, standard, the sentence that builds it in design_cable, its designation (name), voltage, cores, section and metal; and spec_standards[], every family a design_cable spec may name in spec.standard, with its voltages, core counts, sections and metals. Takes only lang. Free, outside the daily free calls, no LLM.

Which cable drum (reel) a length of cable needs, or how much one drum takes: whole layers and whole turns wound nested (each turn in the groove of the layer below, layers rising 0.866 dc) on a wound diameter of 1.05 x OD with a freeboard under the flange rim; cable makers' own capacity tables count aligned layers and print about 11 to 18 % less, and a drum wound loosely may hold less. Drums are KTG, Nordic K, older DIN, Spanish, NEMA, Turkish, Brazilian and Chinese series and makers' own sizes (plastic and plywood reels among them) as their makers print them, and the IS 10418:2024 sizes (India) as the standard's own Table 1 with no tare or load rating, each with its source and seen level; the barrel check uses the KTG minimum barrel table, and the cable's datasheet wins; a load rating is the maker's own, and a drum without one is not load checked (no load_ok). With reeling (and layers for a cylindrical drum), the NFPA 79 (2024) Table 12.7.3 derating of a motor-driven reeling drum. Free, deterministic, no LLM.

The minimum burial cover for a power cable by country, voltage and location (open ground, road, pavement; direct or in a raceway for the US and Australia), from the rule the site holds for that country (national rules, HD 603 / HD 620 parts, NEC 2026 Tables 300.7(A) and 305.15(A), IS 1255), with its source and seen level; null with the reason where none was read. Free, deterministic, no LLM.

The lowest fire class or listing a country asks for in a kind of building or space (escape route, general area, high-rise, tunnel, hospital, data centre, plenum, riser, railway) for DE, ES, FR, GB, IT, TR and US: the rule lines with their sources and seen levels, makers' declarations marked as such, the US NEC listing ladders (CMP, CMR, CL3P ...), or not_found with the reason. Use it to choose the fire class to ask for; to read the class a designation prints use decode_cable_code (cpr_printed). Free, deterministic, no LLM.

AWG / kcmil against IEC 60228 mm², both ways, by area and by maximum resistance at 20 °C (4/0 AWG is not 95 mm²), each size with its resistance and source (NEC Chapter 9 Table 8, UL 1581 Table 30.3, IEC 60228:2004 Table 2); with k, the ICEA insulation constant K (MΩ·1000 ft at 15.6 °C) in MΩ·km and why it cannot be checked against an IEC Ki. Send awg or mm2 (one of them), metal Cu (default) or Al. Use it to translate a North American size; to decode a whole designation use decode_cable_code, to size a cable design_cable. An unknown size is a 400 that names the sizes. Free, deterministic, no LLM.

NEC Chapter 9 conduit fill: the smallest trade size of a raceway type (EMT, IMC, RMC, PVC, ENT, FMC, LFNC, LFMC, HDPE ...) that holds a list of conductors or cables, their areas from Tables 5, 5A and 8 (or a cable by its diameter) against Table 1's 53 / 31 / 40 % (60 % for a nipple), with the fill and the jam ratio of three conductors; each area with its table, and the rows a table lacks named. Free, deterministic, no LLM.

The designer's pull calculation on a route of straights and bends (a conduit or rollers): the tension out of each segment pulled from either end, the sidewall bearing pressure at each bend, the jam ratio, clearance and fill, against the allowable tension and pressure with their sources (makers' and utilities' pulling rules), and the governing limit. Without full and without payment the answer is the verdict a visitor sees on the site, counted against the designs' daily free allowance; full: true (or any paid call) answers in full. pdf: true adds the calculation sheet. input: {route: [{kind: "straight", length (m), slope (deg)} | {kind: "bend", radius (m), angle (deg), plane: "h" | "v"}] (1 to 40), n (cables, 1 to 12), arrangement: auto | triplex | cradled, duct: {kind: "conduit", material: steel | pvc | fibre | asbestos, idMm} | {kind: "conduit", material, raceway: "EMT", metric: 53} | {kind: "rollers"}, head: eye | grip, feedN?, mu?, jacket?, limitN?, swbpNPerM?}. $0.50 per calculation in USDC with x402; the free verdict counts against the designs' 2 free calls per caller per UTC day; a list of up to 50 items at $0.50 per item, one payment.

The NEC cable tray fill (392.22, Tables 392.22(A)(1), (A)(5), (A)(6), (B)(1)) and the ampacity of each cable in the tray (392.80), for 2000 V and below and Type MV: the fill against the allowable area or width, pass or fail, and each cable's derated ampacity with its table. For a conduit or other raceway use conduit_fill (free); for one cable's IEC rating use design_cable. Without full and without payment the answer is the verdict a visitor sees on the site, counted against the designs' daily free allowance; full: true (or any paid call) answers in full. pdf: true adds the calculation sheet. input: {tray: ladder | solid | ventChannel | solidChannel, width (mm, a width the table lists), depth?, use: power | control, covered, layout: touching | spaced | triangular, ambientC, mv, kv?, cables: [{kind: multi | single, size (AWG or kcmil), metal, count, od (mm), tempC, carrying}]}. $0.50 per calculation in USDC with x402; the free verdict counts against the designs' 2 free calls per caller per UTC day; a list of up to 50 items at $0.50 per item, one payment.

The drum page's loading planner: how many vehicles of a type (box trailer, curtain-sider, open top, flat rack, containers, platform, rigid truck, or a custom box in full mode) a number of drums needs, by space and by payload, the rows and positions, chocks and bedding, the securing (wedges, blocking along the axis, tipping, wandering lashings, the load's centre of gravity; EN 12195-1 as the EU guidelines quote it) and every vehicle type compared, each vehicle with its sources. Use drum_fit (free) first to choose the drum for a length; this tool plans how filled drums travel. Without full and without payment the answer is the verdict a visitor sees on the site, counted against the designs' daily free allowance; full: true (or any paid call) answers in full. input: {vehicle: c20 | c40 | c40hc | ot20 | ot40 | fr20 | fr40 | curtain | mega | flat | lowloader | rigid18 | custom, dt (transport diameter, mm), width (mm), gross (kg per drum), qty, mat?: wood | plywood | steel | plastic | cardboard (the friction factor of the securing; wood when absent), custom?: {L, W, H, payload} (full mode only)}. $0.50 per calculation in USDC with x402; the free verdict counts against the designs' 2 free calls per caller per UTC day; a list of up to 50 items at $0.50 per item, one payment.

The Pro cold-weather check: the long-term mean daily minimum and mean temperature of a place in a month (NASA POWER monthly data of the place's grid cell, GeoNames places, a stored table: no outside call) against the design's minimum laying temperature with its source, and a verdict: comfortable, marginal, prewarm or unknown. A place by its GeoNames id or by coordinates (its nearest place in the table, with the distance). Always paid: the site shows no free part. input: {place: a GeoNames id (number) or "lat, lon", month: 1 to 12}. $0.50 per calculation in USDC with x402; no free allowance; a list of up to 50 items at $0.50 per item, one payment.

The Pro electrical values of a medium or high voltage design: capacitance, charging current, inductive reactance in trefoil and flat, a.c. resistance with the skin and proximity effects (IEC 60287-1-1), dielectric loss and the impulse levels (IEC 60502-2), every value with its source; what no source gives is listed as missing. Always paid: the site shows them to members only. input: {freq: 50 | 60, trefoilMm?, flatMm?} (axis spacing, mm; absent: touching). $0.50 per calculation in USDC with x402; no free allowance; a list of up to 50 items at $0.50 per item, one payment.

The Pro economic size (the IEC 60287-3-2 method): the energy lost a year in this size and one and two sizes up, its present cost over the years, and the discounted payback of the larger size where its extra cost is given, each step with its formula and source. Always paid: the site shows it to members only. input: {amps (first-year maximum load), hours (a year in service), mu (loss-load factor), price (per kWh), years, interest (%), lengthM, ambientC, freq?, extra?: [one size up, two sizes up] (extra cost per metre)}. $0.50 per calculation in USDC with x402; no free allowance; a list of up to 50 items at $0.50 per item, one payment.

The Pro commissioning sheet for a design: the tests after installation of its voltage (the rows of design_cable after_installation, IEC 60502-2 clause 20, IEC 60840, IEC 62067, HD 620, BS, IEEE 400.2), each with its voltage, duration and source, as a PDF with fields to record the results. A separate paid call: its own price, never inside the design price. input: {tests?: [row ids of after_installation] (default every row), variant?: HD620-10A | HD620-10C | HD620-10J | HD620-10M | HD620-10R | BS6622 | IS1255 | BS7846 | BS5467 | HD603-3F | HD603-G, length?: route length (m)}. $0.50 per calculation in USDC with x402; no free allowance; a list of up to 50 items at $0.50 per item, one payment.

Prepare the end of an LV, MV or HV power cable for its termination or joint. The answer (thecablecode.prep/v1): steps[], each cut with the design's own depth and the diameter left; the makers' cut-back lengths for this voltage and size (makers' published instructions, unnamed, seen typical; none for low voltage); lug (the lug family by conductor class and metal, its standards, the strip length rule); for MV, accessories (free, also in the verdict: the termination and joint kinds two or more makers' kits fit, with the range their kit sizes cover at the Um, as GET /api/v1/accessories gives it), kits (each kind's range for this cable, length, sheds and creepage where two or more makers' public catalogues agree, no maker named; a kind one maker alone makes says so: why oneMaker) and creepage (the outdoor termination's minimum creepage per pollution class a to e, IEC TS 60815-3, with corrections and sources); fittings (gland diameters and IEC 62444 anchorage, EN 50181 connector interfaces, the IEC 61914 cleat force and the standing sheath voltage of single cores); and the step sheet PDF with pdf: true. Send the cable as design_cable takes it (sentence, spec or design) and the site in input. Use design_cable for the cable itself and commissioning_sheet for the tests after installation; this tool is only the end preparation. Without full and without payment the answer is the verdict a visitor sees on the site, counted against the designs' daily free allowance; full: true (or any paid call) answers in full. A separate paid call at its own price; a bad request costs nothing. input: {pollution?: a | b | c | d | e (the site pollution severity class of IEC TS 60815-1 for the outdoor termination's minimum creepage; absent: every class, none picked), edge?: true (the class read at its upper edge on the IEC TS 60815-1 curve), htm_lower?: true (an HTM insulator: one class lower), fittings?: {formation: trefoil | flat, spacingMm, currentA, lengthM (single-point bonded section), limi

The Enterprise IEC 60287 calculation: the continuous current rating of one circuit of three single cores of a medium or high voltage design, in trefoil or flat, buried direct, in buried ducts (one cable in each) or in free air, bonded at both ends, single-point or cross-bonded, at the site conditions sent (IEC 60287-1-1:2006+A1:2014 and IEC 60287-2-1:2015, read at standard level page by page): every step (the a.c. resistance with ys and yp, the dielectric loss, the screen loss factors, T1, T3, T4, the losses) with its value, unit, clause and page, the notes on what was taken and, where no rating is given, the reasons. Where the site is unknown, the values of IEC 60287-3-1:2017, 4.2, Tables 1 and 2, p. 7 stand (1 m, ground 20 °C, air 25 °C, soil 1.0 K·m/W). Also a three-core MV or HV cable (T1 by 4.1.2.2.4 with the 5.3 factor), armour (lambda2, 2.4; T2), corrugated sheaths, a Milliken copper conductor by its wires, partial drying out of the soil (1.4.2.1), and with input.cycle the IEC 60853 cyclic rating (cyclic: the peak of a 24 h load curve, Part 1 up to 36 kV, Part 2 above), with input.emergency the IEC 60853-2 clause 8 emergency rating (emergency). Also ducts in a concrete bank (IEC 60287-2-1 4.2.7.4), a sand-filled or an unfilled trough (4.2.6), identical circuits side by side (4.2.3.3.1) and a heat source crossing the route (IEC 60287-3-3:2007, the derating factor DF). Not covered: sector-shaped three-core conductors, interlocked armour (no strip thickness held), groups of circuits in free air (IEC 60287-2-2), and the cyclic and emergency ratings with a bank, a trough, a group or a crossing. Always paid, at its own Enterprise-grade price: on the site an Enterprise member's calculation. input: {laying: buried | duct | air, formation: trefoil | flat, bonding: both | single | cross, freq?: 50 | 60, spacingMm? (axis to axis; absent: touching), depthM? (default 1), soil? (K·m/W, default 1), groundC? (default 20), airC? (default 25), duct?: {material: pe | pvc | eart

The Pro degassing estimate (research/degassing/PLAN.md): how many days an XLPE core stays in the oven until a share of its crosslinking by-product is left, by Fick diffusion with published coefficients (Polymers 11 (2019) 1439; the methane D0 and Ea of IEEE PES T&D 2016 as quoted there; Electric Wire & Cable 2025 at 65 C), never a standard's result: no standard gives a degassing formula, time or residual limit. The answer is a band (an open conductor with the 2025 coefficient to a sealed conductor with the 2016 one), the cases at 50, 20, 10 and 5 % left, the curve, the highest local share, the time at 60, 65, 70 and 80 C, each step with its source and seen level, the notes and the warnings (drum turns, sheath, uniform start, no chemistry). For MV (up to 46 kV) the AEIC CS8-20 cl. 10.2 wait is given beside it as the standard's printed value (cs8), with the model's residual at its conditions. A factory measurement (input.calibration) fits an effective coefficient and replaces the band. Always paid, at its own price: on the site a member's calculation with no free part. input: {tempC? (oven, 20 to 80, default 70; warned above 70), target? (share of the start left, 0.01 to 0.9, default 0.1), byproduct?: methane | polar (polar indicative), compound?: standard | low (low by-product: half the start), heatupH? (drum heat-up, h, a ramp from 20 C; default 0), startPpm? and targetPpm? (both or neither), calibration?: {tempC, days, residual (share left, GC), boundary?: sealed | open, heatupH?, conductorMm? and systemMm? (the measured cable; absent: this design)}}. $5.00 per calculation in USDC with x402; no free allowance; a list of up to 50 items at $5.00 per item, one payment.

The Pro equivalence report (server/pro/equivalence.ts, as a member downloads it under the equivalents panel): an IEC power cable in mm² against its North American counterpart in the same role (low voltage: XHHW-2 or USE-2 / RHW-2 (UL 44) or THHN / THWN-2 (UL 83) at the smallest AWG / kcmil size whose area is at least the IEC section; medium voltage: UL 1072 MV-105, the conductor compared, the wall not), value by value: conductor size and resistance (IEC 60228:2004, NEC Chapter 9 Table 8), insulation wall, voltage, normal temperature (IEC 60502-1 / -2 Table 3, NEC Table 310.16), the compound limits (IEC 60502-1 Table 15, UL 1581 Tables 50.231 and 50.182) and the flame tests (IEC 60332-1-2 against VW-1, IEC 60332-3-24 against FT4: not equivalent), each with its source and seen level, as lines and as the report file (Markdown or plain text). Never a statement that the two are interchangeable: the buyer's specification decides. For a quick verdict across many countries' standards use find_equivalents (cheaper, on the decodes' allowance); this report is the one IEC to NEC / UL pair, value by value. Always paid: the site gives it to members only. input: {format?: md | txt (the report file; default md)}. $0.50 per calculation in USDC with x402; no free allowance; a list of up to 50 items at $0.50 per item, one payment.