Wire Terminations Pt 2

[John O]

Do you wrap bare wires around screw terminals, or add spade lugs to the ends
first?

I have an opinion...
Although spade lugs might look sharp, having replaced zillions of similar
builder-installed terminations in a lot of Heathkits during my day, they
need to be attached properly, and that takes a touch of skill. They tend to
create as many problems as they might solve, such as invisible intermittants
between the crimp and strain relief, and the inability to terminate several
wires on certain lugs. Am I on the right track?

-John O

 

[jackcsg]

Do you wrap bare wires around screw terminals, or add spade lugs to the ends
first?

I have an opinion...
Although spade lugs might look sharp, having replaced zillions of similar
builder-installed terminations in a lot of Heathkits during my day, they
need to be attached properly, and that takes a touch of skill. They tend to
create as many problems as they might solve, such as invisible intermittants
between the crimp and strain relief, and the inability to terminate several
wires on certain lugs. Am I on the right track?

-John O

I have to say, back in the day Zenith was pretty much on top of the TV
industry, unit the late 70's when they went to Mexico for assembly. They
used the biggest POS Molex connectors of the day for all their PCB board
inter-connects. It was the beginning of the down hill turn for them.
Intermittent problems was a norm, and made for some interesting trouble
shooting. It was fine until you moved the set, then the trouble re-occurred.
That aside, the Manufacture I use has Molex connectors on all their
expansion boards, and rather than wire nut, or crimp connectors off the
flying leads, I use a Molex connector directly on my wiring, and do away
with their flying leads. I haven't had any problems. But as Jim stated,
using the right crimp tool makes all the difference in the world.
I used to work on aircraft in the Navy...so I'm somewhat familiar with the
right tool. ;-)

Jack

 

[John O]

I have to say, back in the day Zenith was pretty much on top of the TV

industry, unit the late 70's when they went to Mexico for assembly. They
used the biggest POS Molex connectors of the day for all their PCB board
inter-connects. It was the beginning of the down hill turn for them.

LOL, I got to where I am now through Zenith, and spent a few years in one of
their engineering departments. Reliability Engineering, as luck would have
it.

Those sets got worse...I recall a very modular chassis with a pile of
connector-mounted boards, apparently a throwback to tube-swappers. Maybe
this was the beginning of board swapping. In the mid-80's they had
over-reacted to all that madness by way of single PCB for the whole thing,
except for the yoke-mounted part, which was actually broken free of the main
board once it was fully populated.

BTW, the *need to go* to Mexico was the Big Picture issue. Tough market.

Thanks for your comments, guys.

-John O