Wire Gauge Question?

Nick: If you have a good quality soldering iron, let it come up to temperature, clean the tip, put a dab of solder on the tip so that it will transfer heat quickly to whatever you touch the tip to, and then apply it to the pad on the side of the PDB where the battery leads are connected.

If you are working with good lighting and either have good eyesight or a magnifying glass, you should be able to see the solder joint melt. Gently pull the wire free once you see the solder melt -- do not pull it up at 90 degrees to the surface of the PD board -- there is a risk you'll pull the pad away from the fiberglass substrate -- pull it parallel to the surface of the board to reduce the risk of that happening.

If you don't have a good soldering iron, good lighting, and good eye-sight, then I would recommend that you buy the Hakko Soldering Station FX-951, get an OttLite OTL13TCG Task Lamp, and a Donegan OptiVISOR. You'll not regret buying any of these! (They're all available on Amazon.)

The choice of wire gauge is really up to you. 12 or 10 is fine -- the resistance of both wires over such short lengths is very small and both can carry the current range the CS8 is likely to draw.

In your case, it was the resistance of a dry solder joint in the EC5 that was the issue, not the wire itself.

You're right to be paranoid, but no need to be paranoid about the wire gauge, IMO.

Andy.

 

Nick: If there's any doubt in your mind about the connections to the PDB, there's no harm in re-melting (aka "re-flowing") the solder joints on the PDB -- just hold the wire in place, re-flow it, and let it re-solidify.

For removing solder, I use a solder sucker similar to this one (I've had for mine for so long, it's not on the Internet!): http://www.amazon.com/Amico-Desolde...qid=1375682875&sr=8-23&keywords=solder+sucker

I also use solder wick (copper braid sold at a higher price): for example: http://www.amazon.com/Steren-400-16...8&qid=1375682955&sr=8-10&keywords=solder+wick

I tend to use the solder sucker first, especially if there's a large quantity of solder -- but for small delicate desoldering, I'll try the wick.

Andy.

 

Sure you can. But don't go overboard with it otherwise there is a risk you'll create a "bridge" of solder to something you shouldn't oughta bridge!

Post a close up image of the solder joint when you're done. You want to see nice bright shiny solder, with a smooth surface and no individual wire threads showing through -- but it shouldn't look like a giant blob of solder about to evolve into alien life....

Andy.

 

Ah, you young whippersnappers....you don't remember back in the early days of computing when we didn't have the Internet, the AOL folks kept to themselves, people didn't know how to email attachments, and we didn't even have zeros and ones, just zeros....

Andy.