DB connectors

Crikey.. even if Karl isn't near a city, he could've taken a bus to where there is one of those Shack stores, and gotten enough sub-D parts (and crimper, insert/extraction halfassed tools) for some of his connectors, certainly enough for some tests. Or.. even pre-assembled, insulated jumper leads, Or.. bought pre-assembled sub-D cables from various sources, cut them in half (two connecting cables from one) and spliced them in with wire nuts, which require very little skill.

Instead of having someone solder for him, Karl should pay someone to teach him how to solder properly, and then he would know something worthwhile that will be of real use for himself in the future. Folks with an "I can't learn" attitude deserve to fail.

I learned basic soldering in junior high school (sheetmetal and circuit board), so attaining the skill of soldering isn't difficult. Flame heated soldering coppers for sheetmetal.. not even as simple as using a big several-hundred watt electric iron or a Weller soldering gun.

This present situation is what I was saying a couple of weeks ago.. several users that post in RCM make the simplest tasks so GD dramatic.

They ask for help, then do some stupid s*it that they guess is a solution, so they look even more helpless/needy.. what a fuctup game. And this fairly simple task hasn't even gotten started yet.

And in another week or so, they'll have another immediate CRISIS that they just need a little help with.

He goes on to claim that he may learn from his mistakes.. signs of that transformation don't seem to be present.

Karl.. find those spare backup motors yet?

This kind of electrical stuff isn't difficult unless you make it that way.

I recently gained the knowledge needed to properly fabricate some mil-spec avionics connectors which I had no previous experience with, so I do know what I'm talking about. Some research time was involved, but time well spent, and expected.

I just recently became aware of the high quality machined contacts for sub-D connectors. It turns out that the contacts' part numbers are the same as the contacts used in some of the circular Amphenol, Bendix, Matrix etc connectors, such as those utilized by aerospace avionics equipment.

Hand crimping can get old fast even with quality hand tools. Making a fixture that can allow the hand crimper to be bench mounted would be a bit easier, having only to swing one handle instead of repeatedly squeezing handles together. Also, having a surface to rest the "feed" hand on allow for easier placement of the contact and the wire end.

I've worked in instrument assembly fabrication, and even with a foot switch-actuated AMP terminating machine, it's fairly monotonous. I remember the lighting fixture on that machine didn't help to see the termination area behind a clear safety shield.

I'm quite sure that soldering the PT06 type circular connectors with their fixed position, exposed solder cups is a lot easier than poking terminated rear-loaded wires into empty connector bodies with environmental sealing.

An organized work area is paramount to frustration-free assembly of most any multi-contact, miniature connector. The manufacturers' manuals may contain the info regarding a secure holder for the connector, and logical direction to install the wires.. but I found that very good lighting, a magnifier lamp and an enlarged drawing with clearly marked hole designations makes assembly fairly easy and very likely mistake-proof.

Having an adjustable holder or some other arrangement to support the wires while having the prepped ends held near the connector is a major convenience and prevents disruptions.

If I ever needed to do a lot of connector wiring, I have hot wire strippers, resistance soldering and conventional soldering stations and a wide variety of hand crimpers, but I'd prefer to solder wires to contacts whenever the wire bundles have the neccessary support/strain relief to prevent vibration fatigue. Crimping generally has more significance when power connectors carry more current.

Your email server rejected me. so, we'll stay here.

Karl

Crimping is VERY RELIABLE and soldering doesn't help (in fact, the crimp terminals are too easy to solder; adding solder can easily make them the wrong shape to fit). The crimp requirement, though, is a good fitting crimp tool AND the exact stranded-wire size range.

Exactly what size IS the stranded wire you're using?

With a Molex crimp tool, you will want to use only Molex crimp pins, and shells. It might take a magnifier to seat the pin in the crimper correctly, and to get the wire in the hole just right...

People need to learn that you don't need a huge blob of solder. Take a look at a surface mount IC to see just how little it takes. The big problem is most people use cheap crap solder, and the wrong heat. Then they cheap out even more and don't use a drop of mild RMA flux.

The classic solution to soldering connector pins in place, where access to inner pins is difficult, is resistance soldering. The "iron" looks like a big tweezer. Clamp the solder cup, press the foot switch, feed the solder by hand. The tweezer passes a large current through the cup, heating it. The tweezer itself does not get hot, so adjacent wires are not melted.

Here is an example: .

Joe Gwinn

The crimp pins don't normally come with the connector because there are two sizes of each type -- for different ranges of wire gauge. IIRC, the one gauge which you can get away with with either is 24 ga, as that is the overlap in the range.

And if you are smaller than 28 ga (the smallest that crimper officially handles -- say 30 ga (which you may find in ribbon cables), strip over twice the needed length. twisting the stripped insulation as it comes off to bundle the strands tight, then fold it double prior to crimping. That gets it large enough to fit the wire crimp -- though the insulation crimp will be loose unless you slip some extra sleeving over it prior to the crimp. A good approach when you don't have vibration to deal with and want to get something wired up for a test -- though you will probably want to go back and re-do it later with the right size wire for the terminals.

O.K. And send me e-mail to get quicker response. I read e-mail when I get up, and as it arrives during the day. The newsgroups are usually hit late in the day (say midnight or later -- it is currently

Yes -- my e-mail address in the headers above and the .sig below are munged -- but the first line of the .sig tells how to fix it.

Hopefully -- your e-mail server is not among those blocked for spaming.

You're welcome.

Good luck, DoN.

Email is acceptable -- and gets quicker response as explained in what I just posted in another part of this thread. But I did not see it yet -- did you un-mung my e-mail address? The instructions are in the first line of my .sig at the bottom of every posting.

No need for those -- but I *think* that you need a different pin for the 26P male connector -- it puts more pins in the same shell as the

You mean 571-1665060 not ...69 -- right? The URL posted below suggests so.

What wire gauge are you going to crimp these on? (Yes, it matters, that's why there are two crimp locations in the crimper head, one for the smaller ones (28-24 ga IIRC) and one for the larger ones (24-20 ga). You can get away with either -- if your wire size is 24 ga. I see that you have selected the larger size, so you must have wire between 24 ga and 20 ga.

As shown, you see the crimp terminal with a bit of the ribbon used to feed it through an automated crimp machine for someone working with thousands of pins a day. You just stick in the stripped wire, and it goes "ker-chunk" and you have a crimped pin. Some may even strip the wire for you.

Mostly the second size pin needed for the 26-pin connectors. Look at your computer's serial port connector pins, and compare them to the pins on a VGA connector. You will see that the VGA connector has smaller pins -- and they get fifteen in a 9-pin shell, just as you get

I don't know for sure, but I think that the crimp tool will work on the smaller pins. It is too late to check now -- almost bedtime.

Oh yes -- I may be slower tomorrow -- I'm running new wire for the lathe power outlet and the compressor power outlet -- so I don't have to run long extension cords the length of the shop. (Sort of crazy, because where I need the outlets is within a few feet of the breaker box -- but nobody installed outlets there -- let alone the 240 VAC one needed for the lathe. :-)

Good luck, DoN.

Did you fix my e-mail address? The first line of my .sig says (in case your e-mail client hides .sigs automatically):

====================================================================== Remove oil spill source from e-mail ======================================================================

I see lots of log entries rejecting connections from embarq, but those are DHCP allocated addresses -- someone sending mail directly from an isp account without going through their mail server. Those get rejected because they are almost alway spam. People who should be sending direct from their own system should have a static IP address.

Oh yes -- also beware of attachments. Anything over a certain size (unlikely with plain text) will be automatically rejected.

Good Luck, DoN.

The Black Box Corp tool of this type is FT012 (made in U.S.A.) which is a compound-action, Sargent-style tool with a ratchet-cycle mechanism.

The BB FT012 that I have has 3 integrated crimper jaw sets, for 28-24, 24-20 and 18-16 gage wires.