I enjoy reading all the comments but apologize that
there are so many I can’t answer individually. I’m delighted that my
new videos have been so enthusiastically received, which is reflected in
the majority of the comments. The videos aren’t perfect though so below
each video I’ve compiled the comments about things I omitted or people
thought were misleading. A few comments added wonderful additional
information so I’ve included them as well.
There are obviously many people who use the punchdown
IDC connectors. they pointed out that the ribbon cable should feed back
through the top additional clamp for strain relief. A couple of people
wrote that once installed in a chassis, the rated current is only .25amps
per wire! No wonder I don't use them often.
An electrician wrote about his frustration with spring
DIN rail terminals when inserting the screwdriver occasionally causes all
the fiddly parts inside to fly out. I've had similar problems tightening
screw terminals when the metal parts twist out of their plastic housing,
but I can see spring terminals could be a worse problem.
Several people felt I should have mentioned the
importance of not pushing wires too far into connectors, because you can
then be clamping the insulation rather than the wire and making a very bad
connection that may overheat.
I didn't know that NASA insist on the use of transparent
heatshrink, so the quality of the soldered joint inside can be clearly
seen.
A few weeks after finishing this episode I was cursing
Molex Microfit, the posh connectors near the end of the video. In a dark
awkward space a motor was failing intermittently. I changed it but the
fault persisted. I eventually found it was the Molex connector. Unseen,
one contact was 'pushing back' when connected. Although the pins do click
into place when pushed into their housing, it often doesn't feel that
positive. If you do use them, its worth giving the wires a hard tug to
check they have located properly. Apparently 'push back' is a very common
connector problem.
I didn't think to mention that solder joints should look
shiny - if they look opaque they didn't properly melt. Also if
re-soldering a connection, put more flux on the iron to avoid 'spikes' in
the solder, which often happens to me.
A couple of comments about Heat shrink tubing. Self
adhesive heat shrink is great stuff. It provides strain relief and makes a
joint completely waterproof. And yet another way to shrink it is with a
cigarette lighter. For very small wires, I find non-shrink flexible
silicon tubing brilliant.
