Quick question on quick disconnects, before I finish my first CP

[Violineb]

OK I'm finishing up on my very first arcade CP and all that's left is the wiring pretty much. I'm using a KeyWiz Max and 22AWG stranded wire. I have 100 .187" quick disconnects meant for wire 22-16awg. Now my question is, how do I get the wire to stay in the QD? Do I just squeeze it with pliers as hard as I can? And how about when I chain two wires to one QD for the ground cable? There's only enough space in the QD to put the strands of both wires (not the red casing) Is that okay? I tried crimping the QD but ended up destroying the red cap and the wire came out with a little tug. Do most of you resort to soldering it into the QD? Well the sooner you reply the sooner you get to see my finished product BTW the full info on the QDs is:
"Red Female Quick Disconnects for .187" switch terminals. Crimp to single wires in the range 22-16 AWG or finer in multiples." (from groovygamegear)

Thanks in advance, (sorry about my rambling on :p )

Vio

[Trenchbroom]

You might try smaller guage wire--I crimped all of my wires in QD's and have had no problems with it.  I imagine most people crimp with QD's instead of solder.

[Sylentwulf]

You really need a crimper or wire cutters that have a crimper towards the top. The bare wire goes in only past the first "lip" or "bump", so the 2 plastic parts will fit in the first main, big chamber of the QD, while the wire fits inside, then crimp onto the wire and it should be fine.

That is one HORRIBLE description, so hopefully someone else will elaborate

[slicer_d]

If you look at your quick disconnects they have the red plastic part that taper downs and that is where the metal starts.  Basically you need to crimp them so that the stripped part of the wire wire is smushed inside of the metal part.  If the wire you have is to big to fit two inside the qd metal part you might need to get bigger disconnects or smaller wire.  You also probably need a tool to do it usually if you get a decent pair or wire strippers they have a nub that does it and it will work much better than a pair of pliers.  Just go ask at home depot and they should be able to tell you where it is.

you could solder but what a pain that would be.

[SirPeale]

I will second (third, fourth) the crimper recommendation.  Get an actual crimper.  Like you, I didn't have one for years, and used pliers.  Man, what a difference it makes!  Not necessarily on the finished product, but it's a lot easier because all the pressure is placed on one point as opposed to a wider surface (like pliers)

[Tiger-Heli]

There's only enough space in the QD to put the strands of both wires (not the red casing) Is that okay? I tried crimping the QD but ended up destroying the red cap and the wire came out with a little tug. Do most of you resort to soldering it into the QD?

KEY point here - You want the metal part of the QD to crimp onto the bare strands of the wire, not the red casing (insulation).  ALWAYS!  Not just when you have two wires going into the QD.  For two wires, normally you would strip a 1/4 to 3/8" of insulation off the end of the wires, twist them together, and insert them into the QD only until the casing is just outside the metal part.

For single wires, if you can't get a snug fit with the wire stripped, you might need to strip 1/2" off the wire and double it over, or longer and triple it back.

And get a pair of crimpers, should be less than $10 at a hardware store, auto parts store, or electronics store.

[screaming]

  I don't know if I'm going to be able to describe this accurately, but I'll try.  

  For reference, I went the parallel cable route and cut a 10' parallel cable in half and wired one end to the buttons and the other end to the IPAC. I don't know what gauge the wire is inside one of those cables, but it's pretty damn small (the wire thickness, not the AWG ). In each of the wires there were 7 very tiny stranded wires.

  Here is what I did with my quick disconnects and it works great and feels very secure even with such thin wires.

  1) Stripped off about an inch and a half of shielding
  2) Stuck it all the way into the QD until the end of he shielding met the inside metal part of the QD.
  3) wrapped whatever came out the top around the top of the QD, right where the red plastic part ends, at the base of where it starts flaring out.
  4) crimped using a crimper.
  5) Repeat 49 more times (dang those 4p CPs have a lot of buttons!)

/Steve

[RandyT]

 I don't know if I'm going to be able to describe this accurately, but I'll try.  

  For reference, I went the parallel cable route and cut a 10' parallel cable in half and wired one end to the buttons and the other end to the IPAC. I don't know what gauge the wire is inside one of those cables, but it's pretty damn small (the wire thickness, not the AWG ). In each of the wires there were 7 very tiny stranded wires.

  Here is what I did with my quick disconnects and it works great and feels very secure even with such thin wires.

    3) wrapped whatever came out the top around the top of the QD, right where the red plastic part ends, at the base of where it starts flaring out.

Be careful with this one.  That insulated jacket is on there to keep everything neat and tidy, as well as minimize possible shorts from stray strands of wire.  By extending the exposed cable beyond the jacket and wrapping it around the metal part, you might be opening yourself up for future problems.

The best solution is a good crimp, and if you have extra wire sticking out, cut it off.

That being said, if you intend to blow $10 on a set of crimpers, you might as blow a few bux more and get a ratcheting set.  They work a lot better than the "pliers" type.

RandyT