Making connections

1. Making connections Soldering, crimping and an insulating

2. Proper soldering techniques • Proper soldering is very important, a “cold”, a weekly soldered connection, or a solder bridge can lead to a lot of frustration and worse damaged equipment • These films offer a great series on soldering techniques which should be studied, practiced and strictly applied • http://youtu.be/I_NU2ruzyc4 • http://www.makershed.com/product_p/mkel4.htm • This you tube channel, the curious inventor, has dozens of excellent videos that do a fantastic job of demonstrating and describing the proper way to solder

3. Wire Gauges • The thickness of a wire or its “gauge” is a standard unit known as the AWG (American Wire Gauge) • The wire gauge number INCREASES as the wire gets smaller. • Wires carry resistance: the thinner and longer the wire, the more resistance it will have • The method you choose to connect wires to other wires, circuit boards and components will be determined greatly by the wire’s gauge

4. Wire Gauges • It is the amount of copper that determines the gauge of the wire, not the insulation Typically wires are stranded or solid. When they are stranded, the total combined width of the strands determines the gauge

5. Using proper connections • Special connectors have been designed for splicing wires with other wires and components. • Gauges of wire under #22 AGW can use crimp – on terminal connecters as long as the correct size is used and the connectors are not ever meant to come in contact into contact with water

6. Other connectors • For smaller wire, and other types of connections there are literally hundreds of connectors that can be used, depending on your application. • A couple of resources that are good for finding the right type of connector: • http://www.mouser.com/ • http://www.digikey.com/ • http://www.mcmaster.com/