^ I love that movie.... 
@tgrier - I am definitely not anti crimp; I'm rather far from it. I am, however, VERY anti bad crimp. Sadly, bad products are all over the place, and it's hard to determine / learn a good technique. A proper crimp should result in a connection that you (unless you win strongman competitions) cannot pull out the wire with your bare hands. It's intended to be "gas tight". Selecting the proper connector for your wire gauge and adjusting the crimper properly (along with selecting 'good quality' connectors) is a must.
Also, you do need to ensure that the male / female connections are properly mated. If they're not 'very' tight and hard to pull off once connected, then... they're not proper. In addition ... I am not saying this happened to you... but it's been known to happen that some people <cough> miss the hole, and the male spade slides between the insulator/jacket and the metal female spade vs. in its intended slot. Those insulators look 'roomy'.
What you could consider... If and only if the male/female connections are nice and tight. You could slide the insulators back over the wire on every one of the spades and solder the wire to the connector. Then, simply slide the insulator/jacket back into place. I'm not sure that will work post crimping, but most of those don't look very 'indented'. If that doesn't work... then you can replace the spades with properly crimped and/or soldered connections.
It's just one idea among many. I'm also a fan of "easy to swap" modules, but it does take care, patience, good parts, and good, well-adjusted tools to do properly. As an example, before I "swap colors" on the crimps or change wire gauges within colors, I always do a few test crimps. I wrap the wire around my wrist and grab the connector with some pliers and give it a strong, sustained pull. If it budges, I adjust my crimping tool.
Good Luck, this should be a 'fairly simple' fix.
@tgrier - I am definitely not anti crimp; I'm rather far from it. I am, however, VERY anti bad crimp. Sadly, bad products are all over the place, and it's hard to determine / learn a good technique. A proper crimp should result in a connection that you (unless you win strongman competitions) cannot pull out the wire with your bare hands. It's intended to be "gas tight". Selecting the proper connector for your wire gauge and adjusting the crimper properly (along with selecting 'good quality' connectors) is a must.
Also, you do need to ensure that the male / female connections are properly mated. If they're not 'very' tight and hard to pull off once connected, then... they're not proper. In addition ... I am not saying this happened to you... but it's been known to happen that some people <cough> miss the hole, and the male spade slides between the insulator/jacket and the metal female spade vs. in its intended slot. Those insulators look 'roomy'.
What you could consider... If and only if the male/female connections are nice and tight. You could slide the insulators back over the wire on every one of the spades and solder the wire to the connector. Then, simply slide the insulator/jacket back into place. I'm not sure that will work post crimping, but most of those don't look very 'indented'. If that doesn't work... then you can replace the spades with properly crimped and/or soldered connections.
It's just one idea among many. I'm also a fan of "easy to swap" modules, but it does take care, patience, good parts, and good, well-adjusted tools to do properly. As an example, before I "swap colors" on the crimps or change wire gauges within colors, I always do a few test crimps. I wrap the wire around my wrist and grab the connector with some pliers and give it a strong, sustained pull. If it budges, I adjust my crimping tool.
Good Luck, this should be a 'fairly simple' fix.
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My Crimp Hand is strong! 💪. With that said I get the crimp thing and my misuse of correct size for AWG. I am taking it apart and going to back to build guide and above advise...
The Aleph J build guide power supply assembly and test post has a section on crimp connections with links to connectors and insulation sleeves from TE Connectivity that can be used when soldering the connectors. I'm using the same female connectors and recently picked up some of these sleeves but haven't tried them yet:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2-180930-0
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2-180930-1
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2-180930-5
The different connectors I'm using:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2238196-3
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2238198-3
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2238204-3
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2-180930-0
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2-180930-1
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2-180930-5
The different connectors I'm using:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2238196-3
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2238198-3
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/571-2238204-3
If crimp one must, remove the plastic surrounding.
Only one side of a wire should have lug - the other side can be soldered (using solid copper pins) onto the PCB eylet. Full interchangeability/maintainability is preserved - and much fewer headaches.
But, just don't crimp at all - feed the wire into a bare lug and use 10% silver-loaded solder. Double wammy. You could use a very thick 4mm2 (is it #12AWG?) wire, AND you ensure hassle-free operation (zero contact resistance and infinite reliability).
I check the lugs every couple of years to make sure the hot spots are not developing. I also use fine sandpaper to remove oxidation (while at it...)
It's not me... It's the experience that speaks. Can't control it.
Only one side of a wire should have lug - the other side can be soldered (using solid copper pins) onto the PCB eylet. Full interchangeability/maintainability is preserved - and much fewer headaches.
But, just don't crimp at all - feed the wire into a bare lug and use 10% silver-loaded solder. Double wammy. You could use a very thick 4mm2 (is it #12AWG?) wire, AND you ensure hassle-free operation (zero contact resistance and infinite reliability).
I check the lugs every couple of years to make sure the hot spots are not developing. I also use fine sandpaper to remove oxidation (while at it...)
It's not me... It's the experience that speaks. Can't control it.
Copper pins (great stuff!):
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/te-connectivity/165045/?qs=HjC056NR38F9ygYZj8ieGw==&countrycode=AU¤cycode=AUD
Mogami 4mm2 W3101 wire:
https://mogamicable.com/category/bulk/speaker_cable/conventional_configuration/#gsc.tab=0
You'll also need a 60 - 80W soldering iron.
... and some photos to help put the whole picture together:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/te-connectivity/165045/?qs=HjC056NR38F9ygYZj8ieGw==&countrycode=AU¤cycode=AUD
Mogami 4mm2 W3101 wire:
https://mogamicable.com/category/bulk/speaker_cable/conventional_configuration/#gsc.tab=0
You'll also need a 60 - 80W soldering iron.
... and some photos to help put the whole picture together:
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I'm listening, integrating and rebuilding...
I think you also answered my question!
"Connections getting brown/black from heat is dangerous, and you got it backwards. It is definitely not working well, and it is not drawing too much current. That bad crimp is creating a voltage drop and a lot of heat is being generated because of it."
Thanks for the support T
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Thanks, I am going with JZM's advise and going to solder most of the amp. I think I might take crimping advise here for the 120VAC connector as it is a bit cramped, but might even solder that up too... Thanks, T^ I love that movie....
@tgrier - I am definitely not anti crimp; I'm rather far from it. I am, however, VERY anti bad crimp. Sadly, bad products are all over the place, and it's hard to determine / learn a good technique. A proper crimp should result in a connection that you (unless you win strongman competitions) cannot pull out the wire with your bare hands. It's intended to be "gas tight". Selecting the proper connector for your wire gauge and adjusting the crimper properly (along with selecting 'good quality' connectors) is a must.
Also, you do need to ensure that the male / female connections are properly mated. If they're not 'very' tight and hard to pull off once connected, then... they're not proper. In addition ... I am not saying this happened to you... but it's been known to happen that some people <cough> miss the hole, and the male spade slides between the insulator/jacket and the metal female spade vs. in its intended slot. Those insulators look 'roomy'.
What you could consider... If and only if the male/female connections are nice and tight. You could slide the insulators back over the wire on every one of the spades and solder the wire to the connector. Then, simply slide the insulator/jacket back into place. I'm not sure that will work post crimping, but most of those don't look very 'indented'. If that doesn't work... then you can replace the spades with properly crimped and/or soldered connections.
It's just one idea among many. I'm also a fan of "easy to swap" modules, but it does take care, patience, good parts, and good, well-adjusted tools to do properly. As an example, before I "swap colors" on the crimps or change wire gauges within colors, I always do a few test crimps. I wrap the wire around my wrist and grab the connector with some pliers and give it a strong, sustained pull. If it budges, I adjust my crimping tool.
Good Luck, this should be a 'fairly simple' fix.
Ha, I get it, I was just busting balls. Yea it's disassembled and spades are de-soldered. Going to rewire today. Will post updates and pics... Thanks, T
Those pin dodads are nice! Got to get some of those. I will probably move to that type of power supply for next build (have F5M and Steve from Gray Matters B1 and Phono boards to build an integrated) I like the integrated rectifiers it would reduce the amount of crimps I will need. 😉
This is a nice combination, IMO. I'm using a version of Steve's pre at this very moment. Enjoy!
@tgier
Based on your photo showing the crimp is "decent", why did the spade get so hot that it caused discoloration on the insulator? I'm just curious if we can definitely say it was an issue specifically with that connection/crimp, or if there may be something else going on that may not yet be resolved.
Based on your photo showing the crimp is "decent", why did the spade get so hot that it caused discoloration on the insulator? I'm just curious if we can definitely say it was an issue specifically with that connection/crimp, or if there may be something else going on that may not yet be resolved.
Yea, I worked with him and took his Gain Stage design and built a Pot Board that incorporated it in the pre I use with the JZM (see pics). Just using the Pass B1 buffer didn't give enough volume by itself.
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emuffler gave a description of what might be happening...^^^
Considering the amp works great for a while I think when hot some mechanical problem occurs with crimps that causes hum. Hoping soldering connection as per Zen Mod's initial post takes care of problem, his post gives me a heavy "been there done that vib" considering its brevity... T
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