Help with Wiring

[Vash]

I've got my CP finished up and bought a ton of female quick disconnects to use for the ground, but I've never wired anything before and I'm having trouble with the basics.  Does the wire go in between the two holes or inside one of them when using the bladed disconnects?  Do you need disconnects for the common ground as well as each NC?  What and where do you crimp the wire in?

[david656]

use this http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1065&criteria=crimp&doy=3m7 to crimp the wires into the spade connector's and wire them up in a daisy chain fashion  and connect to the lowest of the 3 or 2 pins on the micro switch

[Vash]

I've got all that, and a crimper already.  What I don't know is where the wire is inserted into the spade connector, and how far the wire should go into the spade connector.

[david656]

depends if its the cheap maplins type ones of the ones which the metal rap around the wire and hold it tight.

from today when i was crimping i have found the maplins ones to be very poor but the ones that rap around and hold it in tight liike this http://www.phoenix-xray.com/images/applications/crimp_3_schnitte_100x750.jpg to be the better option.

if you have that type then the wire only needs to go up to and just through the closest crimp to the spade as taht clamps it to the metal and then the back crimp bit holds the wires .... for the maplin style ones i don't know as i gave up on them !

[Vash]

Okay, I really just need to know how to attach the quick disconnect, the wire, and the common ground on the microswitch together correctly.  I have this (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103313&cp=&sr=1&origkw=female+quick+disconnects&kw=female+quick+disconnects&parentPage=search) kind of disconnect.

[DeLuSioNal29]

You basically learn by trial and error with crimping.  After the first 50 or so you will get the hang of it.

Here's what I do.  I strip the wire enough so that when I put it in the connector's hole and put it up to the red edge on top, it is not showing at the bottom of the connector hole you just put it in.  You will get the hang of this as you crimp more and more connectors.

Once measured and stripped, I usually put the crimp itself into the crimper first (loosely, don't crimp down just yet), this allows the other hand to be free to put the wire in the crimper all in one motion.  Then I put the wire in (or wires in if you are daisy chaining) until it just peeks out from the top of the red casing of the connector.  You want to crimp down on the skinnier part of the red casing (if you examine it closely, you will see that the metal part of the connector does not go past the part that get bigger on the connector's red casing.  It's pointless to crimp the whole thing.

Then give it a quick tug to make sure it is secured properly.  If it fails, don't try to re-use the connector.  Throw it away and use a new one.

To put it on the microswitch, simply push it onto the connector until you hear a click and it's firmly in place.  It won't always click but it will be in pretty snugly.  Loose connections are not good, as they tend to fall out.  It's critical that it stay firmly in place.

Last but not least, take your time!  Rushed wiring leads to headaches later for troubleshooting.

P.S. - You may want to check out this video I made about wiring basics.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80229.0

Good Luck!

~ DeLuSioNaL

[Vash]

Delusional - Any chance you could take a few close up stills of your cabinet's wiring, specifically the ground?  I'm trying to daisy chain these, but I don't think I'm quite grasping it yet.  Seeing what I'm supposed to be doing would be extremely helpful, but the internet has failed to produce a decent picture that I can find.  Just a close up of the ground on one of your microswitches, or even a close up from (from varying angles) of the NO connection would be incredibly helpful.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Here you go:

(see attachments below)

I've also updated the videos section where there is more detail in a NEW video about "daisy chaining" ground wires in a control panel.

View it here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80229.0

Hope this helps!

~ DeLuSioNaL

[Vash]

Thanks a ton.  That was really helpful (especially since, on more than one occasion, I tried putting the wire in the wrong way  ).  One final question though.  I've got everything daisychained and a disconnect on all of the microswitch's common grounds.  So now I can either have two loose ground wires that go into my iPac4, or one.  The iPac4 has 2 ground spots, so I'm not entirely sure what to do at this juncture.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I'm only using one ground connection on my ipac-4.  I left the other one empty.  You can use as much (or as little as in my case) connectors as you need.  You don't have to use them all.  You can even twist two grounds together and put them in the same connector on the ipac4.

~ DeLuSioNaL