[CBMC]

I have the rhodium plated cardas rca jacks(#grfa). There is no ground sleeve. I was wondering where on this plug to connect the ground wire?

 

[jerry1130]

Just solder it any where on the side, perferably on the wedge.

 

[JMT]

The circular sleeve with the notch in it is ground. Make sure your soldering iron is hot (I set mine to 800 degrees) as the ground ring acts like a heatsink, I would also suggest using a large screwdriver tip on your iron.

Be careful when you are done, the RCA jack will be HOT for a while.

 

[aos]

The solder just doesn't stick to this jack. High temperature helps but even then solder just beads as if it were drops of water on the surface of water-repellent jacket. Really poor design on Cardas I have to say. Even if there is a proper technique, the fact that it isn't obvious makes it a bad design. I think you're supposed to make a few loops of the bare wire around the groove in jack, which makes sense as it makes a solid contact and reduces the contact resistance, but perhaps that area should not have been plated the same way, and should've instead been made more amenable to soldering. A beautiful looking jack, but what a pain to work with.

 

[Jam_Master_J]

Hey, I did something a bit weird with mine but it works. In the ring thing with the notch in it, I drilled a small hole through. Yes its a shame but I just looped the wire through and soldered. It works awesome. I had to do this because I was having trouble getting a good solid solder anywhere else.

 

[aos]

That's not weird at all, and a good idea (not practical though). You exposed the base material of the jack, and had no problem to get solder to stick on it. It's the plating (Rhodium?) that does not like sticky goo solder on itself.

 

[ITZBITZ]

Glad I'm not the only one that had a pain with these things.

I used my industrial Western Electric (yes, it's old) 85W monster iron to solder these things. And it was hot for about 5 minutes afterwards. But the stuff stuck in the end.

 

[CBMC]

sounds like I might have problems with my 35 watt weller iron. On that note, I really need to get a soldering station with adjustable temperature. Any suggestions?

 

[drewd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CBMC sounds like I might have problems with my 35 watt weller iron. On that note, I really need to get a soldering station with adjustable temperature. Any suggestions?

I have a Weller WES51. It works great for me. I've built around 50 amps with it and I don't have a thing to complain about. Well, at least not about the WES51, anyway. I think that I bought it from Mouser, but I'm not sure. Look around - it goes for around $100.

-Drew

 

[aos]

WES51 is what I have, too.

 

[JMT]

I have a WESD51, best DIY investment I have made.

 

[qwerty870]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CBMC sounds like I might have problems with my 35 watt weller iron.

I've been able to solder the ground connection to those Cardas's with my 25W iron. It's just difficult. If you're patient your 35W should be fine.

 

[CBMC]

what are the benefits to the wes51 digital over the analog model?

 

[drewd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CBMC what are the benefits to the wes51 digital over the analog model?

As far as I know, the digital temperature control is more exact than the indexed dial on the analog model.

-Drew

 

[kevin gilmore]

There must be some kind of film on these things preventing good
solder wicking. I don't think its the amount of heat. The WBT versions
look almost exactly the same and for me they solder very fast with
a 25 watt temp controlled iron. Try using some acid based flux to
clean it first.