Wiring question, hardly worth stating a thread for but oh well.

[jayjay99]

What connectors do you guys use to wire up gauges etc? I'm just planning everything in my head before I do it. I've seen someone saying about using those piggy back connector things, can't think what they're called, put the wires in and push the bar down to cut in to the wire. Does anyone have any trouble with these, I used them on an imobiliser once and found they didn't really make a great connection at times.

Sorry, I know trivial question but thought I'd ask anyway.

[pezza]

They'd be scotch connectors I think;

I always get frowned upon when talking about these connectors.. they have a habit of bad connections as you state, but also known to cut clean through cables at times..

Soldering, or bullet connectors with crimps would probably be a better option.. but I will let the audio gods sepak and advise

[jakester]

I have never had any problems with scotch blocks.

[jayjay99]

I think you're either lucky or not, I might give them a try, certainly the easier option, if they work.

[Bal]

scotch blocks are sketchy in my opionion to easy to pull the cables out.

as pezz said id defo opt for either bullet crimps or normal ones.

[Kieran]

I considered scotchblocks when installing my RSM in Hordak, but read up on them and asked my dad (he's an old-school spark). I quickly decided to solder the wires in and heat sleeve them....

[jayjay99]

I suppose that sounds the proper way to do it, I don't want it coming apart 100 miles down the road, where do you connect your gauges to? following Spirits guide I was going for the mirror switch, is that easy to get at with a soldering iron?

[I-S]

In an automotive application the simple answer is crimps. Screw-down terminals and solder joints are not reliable in a vibration-prone environment. This is 2-3 times truer (if that's a word in this context) now with lead-free solder (which is shockingly bad... it cracks and breaks much quicker than leaded solder.

I recently produced a demonstration unit that we used to exhibit at consumer electronics show. Subsequently, this unit is being used for customer demonstrations, so its life consists of being packed in a flight case, hand carried on aircraft, bumped around in overhead bins, put into car boots, etc. Internally it consists of a couple of pre-existing reference boards, some off-the-shelf power supplies and a custom control board. The control board totalled 22 external connections, and every single one was made with crimped connections because I was sure that absolutely nothing else would have any degree of reliability over the course of a year or two of that sort of treatment. The wiring loom didn't look vastly different to a very small-scale automotive loom, and took about a day to build.

http://www.molex.com/cgi-bin/bv/molex/index_login.jsp

That's the place you want to go. Farnell (uk.farnell.com) stock a good range of molex parts. Note that the molex crimp tools are quite expensive though. Don't even think about doing it with pliers, because that defeats the entire point (reliability) of using crimps in the first place.

[jayjay99]

I didn't realise there was so many ways this question would go :-) I'll have a look at that site now, cheers Isaac.

[SGHOM]

In an automotive application the simple answer is crimps. Screw-down terminals and solder joints are not reliable in a vibration-prone environment. This is 2-3 times truer (if that's a word in this context) now with lead-free solder (which is shockingly bad... it cracks and breaks much quicker than leaded solder.

I recently produced a demonstration unit that we used to exhibit at consumer electronics show. Subsequently, this unit is being used for customer demonstrations, so its life consists of being packed in a flight case, hand carried on aircraft, bumped around in overhead bins, put into car boots, etc. Internally it consists of a couple of pre-existing reference boards, some off-the-shelf power supplies and a custom control board. The control board totalled 22 external connections, and every single one was made with crimped connections because I was sure that absolutely nothing else would have any degree of reliability over the course of a year or two of that sort of treatment. The wiring loom didn't look vastly different to a very small-scale automotive loom, and took about a day to build.

http://www.molex.com/cgi-bin/bv/molex/index_login.jsp

That's the place you want to go. Farnell (uk.farnell.com) stock a good range of molex parts. Note that the molex crimp tools are quite expensive though. Don't even think about doing it with pliers, because that defeats the entire point (reliability) of using crimps in the first place.

So what you're saying, oh long haired on, is twisting the wires together & putting a bit of masking tape [ optional ] around is not good enough ??

[pezza]

So what you're saying, oh long haired on, is twisting the wires together & putting a bit of masking tape [ optional ] around is not good enough ??

Only if testing perhaps Derek, but wouldn't risk trying that with a power lead straight from the battery!

Crimps and heatshrink warp it is then

[L6]

You cant't beat a good crimp connection.

They have been argued better than solder even when solder still used to contain lead.

The choice is endless there are hunderds of types from male and female bullet through to component and control plug and harness's for multi connections. If you go for multi plug and socket crimps you will probably need an insertion and removal tool along with a good pair of ratchit hand crimp tool, but don't use manual hand crimp tool as they are S**t and rely on only a thin csa being compressed. And the operators judgement of force to compress the crimp a ratchit is a true and definate "seal".

Shop around for what you are looking for, RS have a good selection along with farnel and maplins but what ever you pick I would recomend a decent ratchet hand crimp tool

Happy shopping