[time-nuts] DC distribution

[jimlux]

On 10/4/19 12:17 PM, MLewis wrote:
> With audio signals, a soldered crimp is one of the worst possible 
> connections. I wouldn't think it would be different for anything else, 
> but may go undetected until failure. If you've used the correct size of 
> crimp and used a proper crimping tool, then you've got the proper 
> pressure for a solid reliable connection. If you then solder, the heat 
> expands the crimp lessening the crimp pressure, and when it cools it's 
> no longer at the correct crimp pressure (often the wire will pull right 
> out), and with iffy wicking of solder. The worst of both methods 
> combined in one.
> 
> Where the wire is too thin for the crimp I have available, I've cut a 
> piece of a correct thickness wire/cable, inserted that into the crimp 
> along with the signal wire/cable, so it's crimped between them. I don't 
> know if that is the best way of handling that, but it's worked for me.
> 

I agree on not soldering - soldering makes for a stress concentration at 
the end of the strands.  With a crimped connector, wiggling the wire 
bends all the strands differently. And the solder does change the 
"springyness" of the crimping.

With the right crimp tool, and the willingness to throw away marginal 
crimps.

If you were to pot the wire into the connector, that would probably 
solve the brittle solder problem. But that's yet another assembly step 
to squirt the epoxy in.