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Low cost coax connectors

J

Jeff Liebermann

Jan 1, 1970
0
Not too sure about that, that is semi-skilled labor intensive.

Agreed. It was difficult to automate. However, it replaced an
equally labor intensive crimping operation using a very noisy
Amp-o-lectric connector cruncher using various connectors like these:
<http://catalog.tycoelectronics.com/TE/bin/TE.Connect?C=10029&M=FEAT&P=10307&U=&BML=&LG=1&I=13&G=G>
The tinned coax was adequate, but the quality varied radically
depending on who was doing the tinning. After about 1.5 years of
trying to control an inherently tricky process, along with increasing
production requirements, we went back to the crimped connectors. We
never even tried to build a proper robot or outsource the coax cable
production. The final blow was when a quality consultant identified
such manual labor intensive processes as unacceptable. The PCB's and
test fixtures were designed to handle both connector types, so the
reversion was fairly painless.

Somewhat later, I proposed various fixtures, fixes, tweaks, and
improvements, that I thought might have saved the idea, but nobody was
interested.

Today, I suspect that I could automate the process. It really depends
on how quickly I could heat and tin the braid without generating a
large heat affected zone. With solid Teflon dielectric, that's
possible. With polyethylene, it's much more difficult. With foam,
forget it.
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
I notice the first thing you say is "that doesn't work". Have you tried
it? The tool I've envisioned has three X-acto blades, arrayed radially
around a little jaw-thing, such that you push the jaw-thing up to the
cable to be prepped, and twirl it around the cable end while the X-acto
blades do their stuff.

This invention is NOT public domain, it is copyright© 2007, Richard M.
Grise, and this is First Disclosure for patent purposes.

Cheers!
Rich

Something like this?

http://www.eraser.com/catalog.cgi?mode=details&product_id=1947

John
 
J

Jeff Liebermann

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rich Grise said:
I notice the first thing you say is "that doesn't work". Have you tried
it?

Nope. I haven't tried it and probably don't need to. I listed why it
doesn't work. Two big problems.
1. Stripping and exposing the dielectric BEFORE tinning is going to
cause it to melt when dumped into the solder pot. That much I tried
and determined it to be a loser.
2. Solder dipping tends to produce a blob of solder at the end of the
braid. That has to be trimmed off or it won't slide into a matching
receptacle. Therefore, I tin the braid first, and then use the rotary
stripper to remove the excess.
The tool I've envisioned has three X-acto blades, arrayed radially
around a little jaw-thing, such that you push the jaw-thing up to the
cable to be prepped, and twirl it around the cable end while the X-acto
blades do their stuff.

I hate to tell you this, but the rotary knife wire stripper has been
around since long before Al Gore invented the internet. They come in
all sizes ranging from hand held to big production machines. For
example:
<http://tooling.tycoelectronics.com/wire_prep.asp>
This invention is NOT public domain, it is copyright© 2007, Richard M.
Grise, and this is First Disclosure for patent purposes.

<http://www.google.com/patents?q=rotary+wire+stripper&btnG=Search+Patents>
50 patents found for "rotary wire stripper".
 
J

Jim Thompson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Nope. I haven't tried it and probably don't need to. I listed why it
doesn't work. Two big problems.
1. Stripping and exposing the dielectric BEFORE tinning is going to
cause it to melt when dumped into the solder pot. That much I tried
and determined it to be a loser.
2. Solder dipping tends to produce a blob of solder at the end of the
braid. That has to be trimmed off or it won't slide into a matching
receptacle. Therefore, I tin the braid first, and then use the rotary
stripper to remove the excess.


I hate to tell you this, but the rotary knife wire stripper has been
around since long before Al Gore invented the internet. They come in
all sizes ranging from hand held to big production machines. For
example:
<http://tooling.tycoelectronics.com/wire_prep.asp>


<http://www.google.com/patents?q=rotary+wire+stripper&btnG=Search+Patents>
50 patents found for "rotary wire stripper".

I have the "Ideal", http://www.mytoolstore.com/ideal/idendx08.html
mid-page, gold-colored in the illustration, mine is black.

Sliding detent for RG-58, RG-59, RG-6 cutting depths, but Allen-head
adjustable to personal taste.

...Jim Thompson
 
R

RST Engineering \(jw\)

Jan 1, 1970
0
Agreed. Horrible website...good products...great pricing. Two out of three
ain't bad.

Jim
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
RST said:
Agreed. Horrible website...good products...great pricing. Two out of three
ain't bad.

Sure, but if you know them tell them they need a new guy for web design ;-)

Thanks for the info.
 
C

ChairmanOfTheBored

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jeff Liebermann [email protected] posted to sci.electronics.design:


Not too sure about that, that is semi-skilled labor intensive.


Which every contract manufacturer in the world is filled to the brim
with.
 
C

ChairmanOfTheBored

Jan 1, 1970
0
The lacing has a tiny contact area, hence high local pressure, and as
you note is applied by hand, with arbitrary tension. A tie-wrap is
broad and flat and the tension can be defined by the settings on the
wrap tool.

Even better is Panduit.


Actually, tie wraps have a textured surface which appears as a "ladder"
being pressed onto a surface.

Properly placed lacing has very little local pressure, despite having a
narrower width across the surface. Even tightly pulled, it ends up being
less than tie wraps. I have seen tie wraps that impress on the surface
of a coax or cable bundle quite badly, whether hand tensioned or done
with the tensioning tool. The force applied far exceeds that of the
lacing, which ALWAYS slips a bit during the tie off process.
 
C

ChairmanOfTheBored

Jan 1, 1970
0
I wear velcro shoes. I never understood why people would want to keep
their shoes on using labor-intensive, unreliable closures.


Velcro is part of what burned in the disaster your previously mentioned.
 
C

ChairmanOfTheBored

Jan 1, 1970
0
I wear velcro shoes. I never understood why people would want to keep
their shoes on using labor-intensive, unreliable closures.


SOME at NASA refer to it that way. MOST refer to it as Apollo 1, when
using the Apollo moniker, and AS-204 when referring to the mission
reference.
 
H

Herbert John \Jackie\ Gleason

Jan 1, 1970
0
I notice the first thing you say is "that doesn't work". Have you tried
it? The tool I've envisioned has three X-acto blades, arrayed radially
around a little jaw-thing, such that you push the jaw-thing up to the
cable to be prepped, and twirl it around the cable end while the X-acto
blades do their stuff.

This invention is NOT public domain, it is copyright© 2007, Richard M.
Grise, and this is First Disclosure for patent purposes.


Sorry, you sombitch, but it's been around for a LONG time.

Both two and three blade cassettes have been.
 
C

ChairmanOfTheBored

Jan 1, 1970
0
Nope. I haven't tried it and probably don't need to. I listed why it
doesn't work. Two big problems.
1. Stripping and exposing the dielectric BEFORE tinning is going to
cause it to melt when dumped into the solder pot. That much I tried
and determined it to be a loser.

There is no need to EVER tin the shield wire group of a coax end merely
to hold the wires in place for a future cutting operation. There is no
need to put the cable under that heat stress, and the return one gets is
minimal. A good sharp blade is miles better at cutting through the
shield without displacing it.
2. Solder dipping tends to produce a blob of solder at the end of the
braid. That has to be trimmed off or it won't slide into a matching
receptacle. Therefore, I tin the braid first, and then use the rotary
stripper to remove the excess.

Show me a spec sheet that states that the braid on a coax termination
EVER gets soldered. All I have seen has a crimped or soldered CENTER
pin, and a crimped, NON-SOLDERED outer shield.
I hate to tell you this, but the rotary knife wire stripper has been
around since long before Al Gore invented the internet. They come in
all sizes ranging from hand held to big production machines. For
example:

Actually, they haven't been around THAT long, but yeah, since the late
seventies, and early eighties, at the height of the cable TV post wire
era.

Gore's submissions were around the same time.


Oh boy! And not one that has the termination assembler tinning the
braid of the coax! Particularly not ANY that have it done in a friggin'
solder pot!
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
Velcro is part of what burned in the disaster your previously mentioned.

Thanks. The next time my shoes catch fire, I'll be very careful.

John
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bwuahahahahhaa!

Do ya think the guy is into heliostats maybe?

Look to the bottom of the page for his "mug shot".

And who painted that rock? What a cruel thing to do to a nice,
perfectly helpless rock.

John
 
J

JosephKK

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rich Grise [email protected] posted to sci.electronics.design:
I notice the first thing you say is "that doesn't work". Have you
tried it? The tool I've envisioned has three X-acto blades, arrayed
radially around a little jaw-thing, such that you push the jaw-thing
up to the cable to be prepped, and twirl it around the cable end
while the X-acto blades do their stuff.

This invention is NOT public domain, it is copyright© 2007, Richard
M. Grise, and this is First Disclosure for patent purposes.

Cheers!
Rich

Sorry, not patentable, prior art over 20 years ago.
 
K

krw

Jan 1, 1970
0
Selling cell phone contracts?

My son hired one of their store managers to be his assistant manager.
Seems they were forcing him to sell contracts to people living in
areas the provider didn't cover. He didn't think that was quite
cricket, and left.
 
C

ChairmanOfTheBored

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thanks. The next time my shoes catch fire, I'll be very careful.

John


Especially if you are in 16.7 psi pure Oxy environment. You should be
careful there, even if nothing is on fire... yet.
 
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