Soldering Stranded Cat 5 Wires

[injury]

Taking a break from SSC assembly and thinking I would not mind at all if a future design just attached a cat5 plug onto the controller board rather than feeding and soldering those little hairy stranded wires.

Taking me longer to do those 8 wires than the rest of the assembly combinded.

Done whining now back to work.

[inzeos]

I was thinking that same thought about the Aether II.  Would much rather choke up another buck or three for an RJ45 jack, power terminal anchors and a handful of quick connects to use between the LED LCD and main PCB.

[Steve Gase]

here, here!!
those 8 wires have been the biggest hassle in assembling the SSCs.  having the rj45 jacks would be so nice, and it would also help to prevent getting wires mixed up, or the chance of bridging due to wire strands touching other wires. 

but the next problem would be coming up with a cheap and easy replacement to the 1" PVC and endcap.

[sielbear]

Yes - I ended up tinning the ends of the cat-5 wires prior to trying to insert them.  Saved heaps of time on my second batch after I had the idea.  I just added a *touch* of solder to the twisted cat-5 stranded wire to make it act like 1 wire.  Made insertion MUCH easier and made it a little more ridgid so it didn't accidentally slide out so easy.   

[injury]

I think something like one of the low profile front tabbed ones on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login could work and still fit in the 1" pvc .  However the pcb might need to be a bit longer.

[Steve Gase]

I think something like one of the low profile front tabbed ones on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login could work and still fit in the 1" pvc .  However the pcb might need to be a bit longer.

If you cut a larger hole such that you can fit the cat5 plug through the end cap... that would work.  might need to seal up around the cable through to prevent water from coming in.

[Steve Gase]

Yes - I ended up tinning the ends of the cat-5 wires prior to trying to insert them.  Saved heaps of time on my second batch after I had the idea.  I just added a *touch* of solder to the twisted cat-5 stranded wire to make it act like 1 wire.  Made insertion MUCH easier and made it a little more ridgid so it didn't accidentally slide out so easy.

great idea!  I just completed 23 SSCs before your suggestion, but I still have another 20 to do. 

[Corey872]

The first couple were a hassle, but the next several went easier.  Keys for me:

Strip and tin the wire before it has a chance to fray out
If it frays, a few gentle twists to bunch it back up, then tin it
Poke through holes on board
Make gentle bend back to solder holes
Carefully flip board and solder
Trim excess ends.
Clean up flux - especially around data lines

The RJ45 on board would be a bit easier, though harder to seal and more costly too.  I'm actually running my cat5 cable right through the end cap and soldering directly to the board - no pigtail.  This eliminates the one RJ45 joint and any associated water troubles, but does mean each string has a somewhat specific location - IE the longest cat5's pigtails go at the ends of the display and the shorter ones to the middle.

[injury]

If you cut a larger hole such that you can fit the cat5 plug through the end cap... that would work.  might need to seal up around the cable through to prevent water from coming in.

I'd just cut off the plug like now and recrimp another connector on it after I put it through the hole.

[bwhite505]

I'd just cut off the plug like now and recrimp another connector on it after I put it through the hole.

+1

Soldering the wires to the board takes a lot of time.  A cat5 jack would be perfect much quicker to crimp a connector than to strip tin and solder the wires.

Brian

[jnealand]

I concur with having a cat5 jack.  Fortunately for me I had already had bad experience with soldering stranded wire and learned long ago that it is much easier to tin the ends right away.  Sometimes I even strip and tin two strands at a time just to keep from having to twist them together again if I strip them all first and then go to the tinning step.  I even tin the wires between nodes when I have to cut and "paste" nodes together.  Makes connecting them much easier.  You think this is hard you should try the tiny wires used with nscale model railroad engines.