[Oublie]

Hi,

Just finished a couple of cmoy pocket amps and i realise that it is a royal pita to solder the six connections onto the volume pot. I've done it but it looks poor. anyone got any good tips, links or advice on the best way to get a good clean and tidy solder joint on the pot?

These
Alps | Passives | Resistors, Potentiometers or Control Knobs | Resistors - Potentiometers | Carbon Track are the pots i've been using.

thanks.

 

[elliot42]

Like any solder joint. Make sure all surfaces are clean, apply enough heat to the joint so that the solder flows freely (which may be a little longer than a joint between components because there's more metal). Keep the heat on and add solder until there's enough. If you need to add more solder after removing heat, make sure it's completely reheated and fluid before adding more.

 

[lacrossebowe8]

Pots are hard to solder wire to. I use lots of heat and lots of solder. Make sure to bend the wires such that they stay connected to the pot prior to soldering, otherwise once you remove the soldering iron the wire will fly away.

 

[MoxMonkey]

although not the same pot Tom had offered some advice in the starving student thread about the panasonic pot


Quote:

Originally Posted by tomb /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, it's one heckuva difficult pot to air-wire. They're really designed to be snapped into a PCB with those side tabs. That way, the very close and tiny pins are not an issue to wire up. If you do go with it, I suggest using a small piece of perf-board at the pins to help give the pins and wiring some structure and strength.

might be helpful in this situation also

 

[Pars]

You really need 3 hands to do this

One thing I like to do is use 1/16" heatshrink on the pins after soldering... just be careful with the heat gun as you can actually unsolder the connection thereby greatly pissing yourself off.

 

[ltmon]

I cheat with pots and use a crimp lug, similar to these:

Jaycar Electronics

(I think those are bigger than the ones I have, but the idea is the same).

You can crimp one end easily to the pot pin, another end to hookup wire, drop some solder in and then heatshrink.

 

[Oublie]

Thanks for your ideas guys, I especially like the crimp lug option if i can get some small enough. Maybe it's just my fat fingers or maybe i just need more practise with my iron.

 

[JamesL]

After I tin the wire and pin, I clean/re-tin the tip of my iron, place the wire over the pin, and press down with the iron.
It usually works flawlessly for me as long as the pot isn't moving around. And then I put heat shrink over.

 

[elliot42]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesL /img/forum/go_quote.gif After I tin the wire and pin, I clean/re-tin the tip of my iron, place the wire over the pin, and press down with the iron. It usually works flawlessly for me as long as the pot isn't moving around. And then I put heat shrink over.

+1 for that method. That's how I did the pot in my starving millet build, it's a pcb mount pot. Solder on the tab, tinned wire, heat together and voila. I'd forgotten that I'd done that

I was thinking more of the solder lugs of larger pots when reading the OP and how the pot body tends to suck up all the heat making it hard to get a nice flow going right away.

 

[mono]

Helping Hands to hold both parts still while soldering. It can also help to pre-tin the wire and pot leads before trying to attach to each other if it's a straight joint instead of wrapping the wire around it.