[Pulse14]

I bought a lod on ebay and it has proceeded to die on me, so i decided to make my own. After a idiotic 2 week wait for quables my 4 docks came in. I began by using navships 24g 19 strand silver coated wire and a neutrick jack and such to make it easy. I have a 2g touch, so i had to get the 68kohm resistors too.
 
Now, for my first dock, i left all pins in while soldering everytime. I did the resistor first with little resistance (teehee) on that part of the dock. Then came the ground, left, and right. Got them soldered and finished up the dock by building it and hot gluing for strain relief. The i got some nylon over the wires and decided to check for a short before doing the 3.5mm. Found a short between the ground and left. From then on, i proceeded cutting the wire each time, inserting a new pin, and trying again, 4 times, and i STILL keep getting shorts.
 
On each pin, I put a negligible amout of flux, flux the wire, hold the wire to the pin, and touch the soldering iron (with a small amout of solder on it) to the joint and it gives me a great solder everytime. I then take this tiny little shrink tubing i have and put it as far down on the joint as possible. Even with all these (what i consider to be) cautionary methods of soldering, i keep getting two pins shorted.
 
HELP! please?

 

[logwed]

Also interested, subscribed.

 

[Jack C]

Uh, is the other end of the cable cut and unterminated? If so, there could be a short there between those two wires on the other end.
 
Hope that's it. Otherwise the problem you described would drive me crazy and keep me up at night.
 
Jack

 

[Pulse14]

No sir jack And its drivin me crazy during the day!!!!! Bumping it to keep it alive.
 
And, out of curiosity, how do you solder anything over 24g onto these pins?!?!?! Those ALO docks just absolutely BLOW my mind!!!!

 

[juswyq]

remove the unneeded pins, then bend the pins (pins 2, 3, 4 i believe) away from each other to give more leeway for soldering without shorts.
 
i.e. pin alignment from | | | to / | \

 

[scootermafia]

There's an easy way to do this.  The tough pins are pins 3 and 4, for left/right.  The two for grounds that must be connected, I forget the number - these are easy to deal with.  First, you do have to rip out all of the unwanted pins.  The next thing to do is put the assembly in a stand pin side up, and put epoxy in the cracks between the pins where they insert into the connector, as this is where the shorts happen.  Once it's dry, there's no way for solder to get into that tiny crack and short it out.  Pin 5 should not be used for ground when there are many others that suffice.  You can bend 3 and 4 slightly apart.
 
I'm not sure why you'd want to use over 24awg wire, but you simply have to tin the wire and stick that huge ass end to the tiny pin, and bend the pins in such a way that there's clearance.  Then pot all that in a crapload of epoxy.  What I do to make LODs is to start by cutting 3 wires, and attaching each individually to their  respective pins.  Then, I apply hot glue around where the wires are soldered, enough to strengthen them but not close to the ends as this will interfere with the side clip mechanisms.  Once everything is pretty secure I reassemble the connector, then put in more hot glue, again not getting too close to the sides.  Then you can assemble it and finish it with some 3/4" heatshrink.  Of course once the wires are secured and the plug assembled you can braid the wires or whatever and sleeve the cable, then terminate it. 
 
Working from a terminated end first and then putting the wires onto the LOD last is asking for trouble.  Using pre-made cables to do this is very awkward too.  It is much safer to start with bare wire.  

 

[andrewmorio]

scootermafia:
great instructions.I know to do it now.hysterical- "huge ass end." Its really true.Those lod pins are  tiny.