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Wire keeps coming out of crimp connectors.
TheShanMan:
--- Quote from: MaximRecoil on February 24, 2008, 02:31:16 pm ---
--- Quote ---Proper crimp skill means either method works just fine. The difference between the two is pretty much irrelevant in this context.
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This doesn't have much to do with "skill". And again, why don't you tell me what the point is of making a couple of dozen unnecessary breaks in the wire is? Name any electrical situation where adding superfluous breaks/twists/crimps is considered good practice or ideal. It obviously doesn't improve the connection over a solid run of wire, and can potentially make things worse—so why do it if you don't have to?
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Sure, there are plenty of situations in electronics where this could be quite non-ideal, but we're talking about switch inputs to an encoder here. By "skill", he just means as long as you crimp properly (all things considered - tool, total wire gauge, connector gauge, etc.), then crimping 2 separate wires is totally fine and in terms of arcade use will be no worse than folding and crimping.
I'm sure, as you say, you can do the fold technique just as quickly as cutting, but for people who are not used to your technique, it requires care to cut and remove the insulation without damaging the wire, and that means extra time. As long as you do a good job with your crimps, then the chosen technique is nothing more than a personal preference.
mountain:
I just found this thread and thought I could offer some insight. I've crimped a wire or two...
This is a really simple problem with a very simple solution. There are specific crimpers for these connectors that are calibrated to crimp it perfect every time. They prevent over crimping and under crimping simultaniously. These connectors are available in several different sizes, red - 16-22awg, blue - 14-16awg and yellow - 10-12awg. If you do not have a set of calibrated crimpers, or cannot use the proper wire/connector combination, you should solder. If you want the advantage of being able to unplug the switch on the fly, pull the insulation off of the terminal, crimp it to the best of your ability and then solder the wire to the connector at the crimp. Either re-use the insulation sleeve or apply heatshrink over it.
There is absolutely no advantage to keeping the wire intact. Remember, we are only supplying a ground to each switch so it can send a ground signal to the encoder. There is no load, no high voltage, just a signal. 8-12 crimps inline on a typical control panel will have minimal increase in resistance. You could properly crimp 100 splices in between a ground source and the encoder and it would work......forever.
shardian:
Mountain makes a good point. In the case of sound wiring connections, proper tools and supplies is the most important aspect. With a good crimper, stripper, and proper sized QD and wire you could have a ground wire cut in no time. It is much quicker for me to cut the wire, strip the ends then go thru and crimp than it would be to shave off sections of insulation. I also don't do the insulation shave since I've seen houses wired like that and it is not kosher at all.
The best example I can give you for championing proper tools is my experience of repinning a system 1 pinball machine. I didn't want to buy a crimper for that one project, so I tried to manage with a generic crimper and solder. It was a pain in the ass, took forever, and looked like ass to boot. I finally got the proper molex crimper for the job. When used properly, it only took like 4-5 seconds to make a sound crimp that was probably stronger than the nasty solder/crimp I was doing before.
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: shardian on February 25, 2008, 04:56:36 pm ---It was a pain in the ass, took forever, and looked like ass to boot.
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It's one thing to look like ass. It's so much worse to look like ass that needs booting.
MaximRecoil:
--- Quote from: mountain on February 25, 2008, 04:10:38 pm ---There is absolutely no advantage to keeping the wire intact.
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First of all, yes there is. I've already mentioned the advantages. You can pretend like I didn't so that you don't have to refute anything specific, but that doesn't make the advantages go away.
Secondly, there is absolutely no advantage to cutting the wire.
--- Quote ---Remember, we are only supplying a ground to each switch so it can send a ground signal to the encoder. There is no load, no high voltage, just a signal. 8-12 crimps inline on a typical control panel will have minimal increase in resistance.
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"No load", huh? True superconductivity—amazing.
--- Quote ---You could properly crimp 100 splices in between a ground source and the encoder and it would work......forever.
--- End quote ---
Possibly. You know that the same thing could be said for any run of wire in an arcade machine, right? Since you are such a fan of cutting and splicing wires in a circuit, that you make a point of doing it to the ground loop even though it is 100% unnecessary, why don't you do it to the rest of your wires too? Go through all your wiring and cut it every 6" or so, then crimp it back together; because it will still work if you crimp properly and it seems to be the trendy thing to do.
They should start selling spools of wire that has already been cut and spliced back together every 6", because it's, you know, just as good.