Dear Bud,
Winding the toroids is easy. Tinning the leads is hard, unless you
have a solder pot or some such. That's where the Toroid Guy
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> shines. His are beautifully tinned. Saves
you from potential bad solders onto the boards.
Oliver Johns
W6ODJ
On 18 Feb 2008, at 12:38 AM, Dave Andrus wrote:
Bud:
I've seen the advice, and it's all excellent, but for someone new
to the art, it might still sound just a bit intimidating ("remember
to do this, don't forget to do that"), so I'll offer my 2 cents
just to try and make it a bit worse!
Remember that it's only mysterious until you've actually wound your
first toroid. After that, it's all mostly downhill (with the wind
at your back, usually)!
Remember that you're going to get a (typically) excellent manual
from Elecraft that goes out of its way to show you pictures and
give lots of good advice when you need it--at the moment you're
winding the first toroid. I've done lots and lots of toroids, and
I still was impressed with the graphics, winding instructions and
lead dressing advice that's in the manual. So, don't be afraid to
try--they're really not hard at all, just new to someone that's
never done one before. In fact, one could say that they're no
harder than winding any inductor, and in some ways quite a bit easier.
If you try your first one, and you're still not sure if it's right,
take a quickie digital picture of your finished toroid, and email
it to either Elecraft's great tech support folks or here on the
reflector (just don't send big attachements if you can avoid it).
Then ask, "Hey, how does this one look?" Guaranteed you'll have
lots of seasoned eyes looking over your shoulder.
Don't be afraid to try. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I
ordered my recent K2 toroid set from Mychael, the coil guy!? He's
quick (had them in 3 days from across the country), not too
expensive, and his toroids look great. Hey, I already know how to
wind 'em. Don't need more practice ;-)
It cut a couple of hours off of my build time.
73,
Dave K7DAA
http://www.k7daa.com
On Feb 17, 2008, at 4:37 PM, John R. Lonigro wrote:
Bud:
Here's a little tip (I'll leave the poetry to Wayne): The first
winding tends to be the loosest, so wind N + 1 turns and then
remove the first one, ending up with the correct number. But make
sure you double check the number of turns. Being off by "only" 1
turn may not sound bad, but in many cases it represents a big
increase in inductance, possibly over 10%. As others have said,
just count the number of times the wire passes through the center
of the toroid.
I've easily wound well over 100 toroids in the past few years and
have never had a problem with winding them. Be especially careful
stripping the wire before soldering it into the circuit. You can
search the archives for various techniques. One thing I do in
that regard is insert the part BEFORE stripping the wire, to check
for proper fit. Then I trim it, leaving maybe 1/8" extra on each
lead. Finally I remove it and concentrate on stripping the wire
where I know it's going to be contacting the solder pad. If you
don't trim it first, you'll end up spending lots of time stripping
parts of the wire that will either be snipped off after soldering
or will be nowhere near the solder pad.
73's and good luck,
John AA0VE
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I just ordered a K1 four band transceiver.
I am worried about the torroids .... should I be?
Bud
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