Soldering Panasonic ECG and Similar Tight Pots

[DreadPirate]

The stereo Panasonic ECG is a real pain to solder onto, six pins, all very tight together. I'm thinking the best way to do this is perhaps soldering on mini pin connectors onto my wires, slipping onto the pin, then tack soldering again. I'd have some shrink ready to slip over the connection when done to prevent inadvertent contact with neighbors. Any techniques out there that might do a better/easier job of this?

 

[mjf]

hello.
i like to do this:
first i solder the cable
and then the pins of the pot
and after this i put the (tiny) cable on the pins with a pair of tweezers and the solder iron finishes the work.
heatshrink looks good.........hand made.
greetings

 

[DreadPirate]

hello.
i like to do this:
first i solder the cable
and then the pins of the pot
and after this i put the (tiny) cable on the pins with a pair of tweezers and the solder iron finishes the work.
heatshrink looks good.........hand made.
greetings

That is how I did it last time and I'm looking for a better way. It has worked, but it was quite painstaking. I also used a magnifying lamp and very sharp soldering iron tip. I like how cheap these Panny's are, but maybe I need to be looking at larger sized pots?

 

[Enzo]

Radio Shack sells a variety of experimenter pc boards, laid out like the little solderless breadboards. Use an Xacto saw or something to cut out a small piece of that. Set the pot legs into a row of holes, and solder wires to the adjacent holes in the row,. You often see this approach in consumer goods - like a lonesome headphones volume control on its own tiny pc board in some tape deck.

 

[DreadPirate]

Radio Shack sells a variety of experimenter pc boards, laid out like the little solderless breadboards. Use an Xacto saw or something to cut out a small piece of that. Set the pot legs into a row of holes, and solder wires to the adjacent holes in the row,. You often see this approach in consumer goods - like a lonesome headphones volume control on its own tiny pc board in some tape deck.

BINGO! This is the way to do it, thanks.