3 ms·

Those just starting out tend to think of solder as more direct than using a connector so therefore more secure. But it’s surprising how poor the reliability ca

Those just starting out tend to think of solder as more direct than using a connector so therefore more secure. But it’s surprising how poor the reliability can be. Aside from your points, solder can wick up a cable, and then the cable often breaks just at the point where the solder ends since it has no strain relief and may be right in the middle of a bend. This is especially true for adding solder to a crimped connector “for good measure”. It does more harm than good. That being said it’s convenient many times especially if you don’t have connectors on hand or need to place wires in a specific orientation. Hot glue or better yet, RTV silicone can be used to make strain relief to increase the reliability. Or, when using perf board like in the post, a good technique is to drill a hole for a snug fit of the cable including insulation, then pass the cable through the hole before soldering to an adjacent hole.

gw99 4y ago
Good advice. It’s worth expanding on my comment now I have a few minutes. You can terminate solid core like this if it has some strain relief but not stranded!. My favoured construction method is to take a Hammond box lid and screw a piece of blank FR4 single sided copper to the inside of it leaving enough space around the edges for any (proper) connectors you need. You can then drill out anything you need, usually BNC, SMA, DC jacks, FT capacitors and D connectors for me. You build the prototype on the FR4 board dead bug and use solid core or RG174 to wire up the connectors and lap solder them to the boards or components as required. This is done carefully with thought for weight distribution and to keep the total mass of the wires low. When it works the Hammond box is closed. If it needs to withstand vibration or moisture you build it into the bottom of the Hammond box and when done fill it with potting compound.

gw99 4y ago

Good advice. It’s worth expanding on my comment now I have a few minutes. You can terminate solid core like this if it has some strain relief but not stranded!. My favoured construction method is to take a Hammond box lid and screw a piece of blank FR4 single sided copper to the inside of it leaving enough space around the edges for any (proper) connectors you need. You can then drill out anything you need, usually BNC, SMA, DC jacks, FT capacitors and D connectors for me. You build the prototype on the FR4 board dead bug and use solid core or RG174 to wire up the connectors and lap solder them to the boards or components as required. This is done carefully with thought for weight distribution and to keep the total mass of the wires low. When it works the Hammond box is closed. If it needs to withstand vibration or moisture you build it into the bottom of the Hammond box and when done fill it with potting compound.