Env Server's PCB

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The Env PCB on my soldering station on the Electronics Bench.

Bottom of the Env server board.   You can see the Nano's and MAX485's header pins, already soldered.

Finished Env Server being tested.   First I ran the ground buss wire (tinned copper), then the +5 buss (tinned copper), and finally the signal wires (white).

Final Env server PCB.

Finished Env Server top, being tested.

I'm using a 4 wire, shielded twisted pair cable, since I run powera (Red) and ground (Black) through it to Nano Servers.   I tie the drain wire (bare copper) to the gound (Black), so far no probs, but I'm only running 57600 Baud.
I strip about 4mm of insulation from the ends, tin any stranded ends, then bend a hook in each wire.   I put HS (heat shrink) on the connector wires, hook red to red, black to black, etc., squeez the hooks together, then solder.   Last I heat the HS to secure and insulate the joint.  

The shielded twisted pair cable, 4 wire with shield.   The Red & Black wires will be +5 and ground, the blue and yellow will be RS-485 B and A, respectively.

The 4 wire shielded twisted pair cable on the left.   Note the Red, Black, and Blue connector wires have a mating color in the 4 wire cable so I had to match the green connector wire to the yellow cable wire.   Also note the bare wire is called a drain wire and connects to the foil shield in the cable.   Before actually connecting the wires, I put a short piece of HS on the connector wires.  e The connector wires are stranded so I tinned them, then put a little hook on the end of all wires to be joined.

Sliding HS onto the connector leads.

You can see the HS on the connector end (away from heat of soldering).

Then I hook both ends of wire to be joined and solder them.   Note I soldered the drain wire to the black ground wire.

After the soldering is done, I slide the HS (heat shrink) up over the sodered joint and heat it.

Closer look at individual HS cable termination.

Final, I put a larger HS (heat shrink) over the 4 individual wire HSs.   Note this is the Gateway end, it has an extra ground wire to ground the entire system.

Close up of the larger HS.

The Env Server (slave) end of the the RS-485 cable.

Closer look, note large HS over smaller HS.