I just ran across this yesterday, and it has a lot of really great information:
http://workmanship.nasa.gov
We have learned a lot of electronics lessons the hard way, generally finding that (unlike, say, peroxide use and handling) that you really do need to pay heed to all the horror stories people tell.
I would be interested in hearing about ERPS general practices for electrical fabrication work.
One lesson for us that has been driven home many times is: Don't use anything but Tefzel wire. I have specifically seen at least four failures in cheaper wiring due to heat or abrasion that wouldn't have happened with Tefzel. All my general 18g wiring has been Tefzel for a long time, but until recently I didn't have a good supply of heavier and lighter gauges, and I sometimes used cheaper wire. When I recently reworked the electronics, I found a power wire with the conductor clearly visible for over a half inch. We still have cheap wire coming off of some of our devices, which occasionally causes me some concern. When you use Tefzel wiring, don't even think about using cheap wire crimpers, or it will drive you mad. A good pair of moving jaw strippers makes all the difference in the world.
Another thing that bit us at least twice was bare wire screw terminals. We put ring terminals on everything we make, but things like A/D breakout boards are almost always bare wire terminals. We are having a custom board made to replace the breakout board, also adding some filtering and static protection.
The recently diagnosed inductive motor drive problems have probably caused us at least a half dozen flight test problems.
Our next rev of the electronics systems is going to use shielded and grounded cables for everything, which is going to be more of a hassle, but I will feel more comfortable about it. We are also going to use shielded metal enclosures instead of building on plastic or composite bases.
John Carmack
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