Although it may be in dispute, I find soldering the crimped connectors of ring or spade terminals to generally be a 'good thing'. The advantage of soldering is that it usually ensures a good electrical connection from the wire to the ring/spade terminal, and provides at least a minimum amount of mechanical strength (The only disadvantage with soldering I can think of maybe that could make the wires attaching to the ring/spade terminals more prone to fatigue and breakage). Also, it's not a bad idea to de-flux the connection after soldering to avoid long-term solder-joint corrosion.
The other method to try is to crimp each connection twice, which often bends the wire-grasping edges of the terminal a bit harder onto the wire. However you do it, it's important to do a pull test and continuity check on each terminal, just to make sure it's grasping wire well and not just insulation. In either case, if the electrical wiring gets manipulated about frequently, you should visually check for metal fatigue and failure of the strands of your wires, especially where join the ring/spade terminals -- I've seen this on both soldered and plain crimped connectors before. To avoid too much movement, it doesn't hurt to tie your wiring together into a harness and anchor the harness to the rocket body. --- John Carmack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At 09:19 PM 11/19/2002 +1300, you wrote: > > >> ... Push fits are used in cars a lot- they > nearly always fail eventually. > > > >Its been said before but - > > > >- Crimp connectors in automotive use ALWAYS fail > eventually. Eventually can > >be very short. I always solder crimp connectors > after crimping if I have any > >investment in their reliability. > > This point seems to be disputed, and I believe that > the mil-specs and > aviation rules come in on the side of crimp-only, > rather than > crimp-and-solder. A double crimp connector that has > one crimp grab the > wire insulation, while the other crimp grabs the > wire, seems to be the > preferred high end solution. > > > >* Screw down connectors will be of the "clamp" type > in any quality > >equipment. "Chocolate block" type connectors where > the screw end directly > >contacts the conductor have no place in mission (or > life) critical equipment > > The wire screw terminals on our driver board are > high quality clamps, and > haven't ever given us trouble (unlike the cheap ones > on some boards we have > gotten), but we are going to replace them with ring > terminals anyway. > > John Carmack > > _______________________________________________ > ERPS-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
