harryfliu wrote:
...I'm gonna go ahead and desolder everything this weekend and try to rewire using smaller wires. I don't have any heat shrink but I'll try to strip as little insulation as possible from the cabling before soldering and only use one cable per connection. Hopefully the footswitch and PCB cabling is better on the second go...
Best of luck with it. For myself, the key to making clean and trouble-free wire connections is in the wire prep: measure, strip, twist & tin. To elaborate on that a bit:
- I assemble the populated PCB and all of the hardware into the enclosure and measure the needed lengths of wire from point to point, leaving a bit extra for insertion into the solder points. I usually figure 1/8" per connection to the PCB, footswitch and the DC jack, and 1/4" for the I/O jack tabs.
- Once measured & cut, I then strip the wire ends per the lengths mentioned above.
- Next, I twist the wire strands together as tightly as I can between thumb and forefinger. This is key to avoiding those trouble-making stray wire strands.
- Lastly, I tin each twisted wire end with a small amount of solder, just enough to hold the strands together--the individual strands should still be visible after tinning.
Now you're ready to make your solder joints. Insert the stripped end into the eyelet, lug or tab right up to the start of the insulation, and solder from the opposite side. Make the solder joint as quickly as possible (speed comes with practice), which will avoid melting the insulation on the other side of the joint. Finish by trimming the wire end back to the top of the solder joint
I'm sure that there are other techniques that may be equally effective, but this sequence works well for me.
_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)
My Website *
My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals:
Pg.1 -
Pg.2