[JuicyBruce]

Hi all,
 
I bought the following to replace the terminals on my chris_himself cable but i'm damned if I will be able to make it work.
The circled "plugs" are only about 2mm deep and the cuts you can see are about 1mm. I have bare silver wire and inserting into these holes does not seem like an option. I had originally though they may be crimps but unfortunately not.
If anyone is familiar with this type of connecter or has experience making strong solder joints with close to zero real-estate please let me know.
 
 
 
 

 

[Steve Eddy]

You've certainly got your work cut out for you.
 
Basically there are several options.
 
First, you can use a different wire, one that's small enough to fit into the solder cups.
 
Second, if your wire is stranded as opposed to solid core, you can snip away a few strands until you're left with few enough strands that they can fit into the solder cups.
 
Third, you can get a solid core wire that is small enough to fit into the solder cups, wrap it four or five times around the wire you have now, bend the end at 90 degrees so you have a short length of it extending beyond the end of your wire, solder that to your wire and then solder the solid core wire to the pins (this will tend to melt the solder you used for attaching the solid core wire so you need to make sure everything's nice and stable and doesn't move when you're soldering to the pins).
 
Whatever route you choose, be sure and use separate flux, either liquid or paste, and apply it to the areas you're going to solder before you start soldering. For small work like this, you should just apply a little solder to the tip of your iron, touch it to your workpiece, and let it wick the solder off the tip. Oh, and be sure you use something to heatsink the pins. A copper alligator clip for example.
 
Good luck!
 
se

 

[JuicyBruce]

Thanks for the reply Steve!
Also props to Ted for the PM. You are the dood and i'll probably end up buying another CH cable from you guys soon if this goes pear shaped.
Love this community...
 
The wire I will be attempting to solder is quite a bit smaller than the terminal cup which is then only very shallow. I am thinking along the same lines only in reverse. I need to find something that is thick enough to fit snugly - attach that to the IEM wire and the solder the plug down. I dont like my changes even then since I will be portable with this setup and tend to carry a laptop bag and a backpack on my commute, something that will snag from time to time. 
Great advice re. flux and heatsinks. I am also looking into getting some clamps as extra hands. Oh and a decent soldering iron (cough).
 
Going to get some practise in before I attempt this - thanks again.
JB

 

[Steve Eddy]

Ted? Don't listen to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about.

 
If the wire you have now is already small enough to fit in the solder cups, there's not going to be any advantage to using a larger wire as an intermediary.
 
se