The big assembly question!

[NUTTTR]

Well, what does everyone think? It's one of the biggest questions me a few friends always argue about...
Do you use spade terminals on power connections (ANY sort of power connection), or do you solder? I PERSONALLY love using wiring direct and making the hole in the solder lug big enough to fit as many/thick wires as i need through it then throughly solder everything...
What does everyone else use? I plan on soldering everything and leave room to do so, on the odd occasion when i've had to use connectors, i have but they usually introduce some sort of resistance in them which to me, spoils all the work!

What does everyone else do?
Aaron

[Konrad]

Some use assembly for programming microprossors.

Solder a big lump for what reason ? Heat conduction is poorer, resistanse in solder vvs kopper ... no.... And a big lump of assembly is messy so is solder.

[BrianDonegan]

For me it would depend cheifly on whether I might ever want to take it apart.

Also, if you were best of soldering all the time, why to big caps come with screw lugs? Take a look at the high current connections in your car - all crimp connections.

Everything adds resistance.

If you really like soldering, go for it. Just be careful of those fumes man.

-b

[Mr Evil]

I use a lot of spade connectors. If I want to go one better then I'll use a more expensive connector (Molex make some good high current capable stuff). The primary reason for that is to make it easy to disassemble. Given that we're into DIY, it's inevitable that things will be taken apart and put back together multiple times, and soldered connections just aren't helpful there.

[pinkmouse]

Soldering mains terminals is a bad idea, they should always be crimped or use screw connections. If you have a minor wiring fault internally, the soldered connection could melt, and the live short to something else.

[DigitalJunkie]

I usually crimp tightly,and then solder the connection.
For some reason,crimps tend to fall apart on me after a while,so I started soldering them after crimping to help the physical connection(so it won't pull apart).

[NUTTTR]

Originally posted by DigitalJunkie
I usually crimp tightly,and then solder the connection.
For some reason,crimps tend to fall apart on me after a while,so I started soldering them after crimping to help the physical connection(so it won't pull apart).

That's one of the problems i have!!!

[anatech]

Hi NUTTTR,
Are you using the correct crimping tool? Is it solid wire (that doesn't crimp well)? Mine don't come apart. Sometimes I will solder after the crimp on smaller wires. Ring terminals are normally used on supply connections with a lock washer. You can get a very low resistance connection if you use the right hardware and clean things up first.
-Chris