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I hate soldering cables (Venting)

Twylo

Twylo

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
230
Location
Poulsbo, WA
I just need to get this off my chest.

I'm making a couple of console serial cables for a PDP-11 project. These essentially replace BC03L EIA cables, 40 pin Berg (actually an IDT in my case) on one end and a DB25 on the other. Simplest thing in the world.

Except for how freakin' tedious it is! Splitting, partly rounding, and stripping a 40 conductor flat ribbon cable, then soldering all the necessary ends to the DB25 solder cups? HORRIBLE. I'm going blind!

Yeah. Just needed to vent! :)

-Twylo
 
lol a few months ago I was doing the same, but 34 pin ribbon.

Stripping, checking the wire number, checking the pin on the DB25, positioning each wire so it sits in the little pin hole, then pressing and hoping it doesn't move when you solder. Repeat. Then later I discover I made a mistake and the last 5 joins were offset by one pin.

I never finished my adaptor, for a patient person with a nice cup of tea it's probably not even a worry, but for me it was like torture. I'd need to be pretty desperate to make myself do that again.
 
How do they manage to make money doing this commercially? I've got a KVM switch that 's mechanical and looking inside I see every single wire for all the 4 ports is individually soldered. Even just that would take a month of Sundays!

Mind, I've been ambitious in the past with wiring projects, but all that happened is that I feel even less inspired to do it now.
 
Ole Juul said:
How do they manage to make money doing this commercially? I've got a KVM switch that 's mechanical and looking inside I see every single wire for all the 4 ports is individually soldered. Even just that would take a month of Sundays!
Click to expand...

Cheap labor that doesn't mind getting bored.

If there's a mass-terminate or crimp-pin solution, I usually go for that. But sometimes there's no option.
 
Twylo said:
Except for how freakin' tedious it is! Splitting, partly rounding, and stripping a 40 conductor flat ribbon cable, then soldering all the necessary ends to the DB25 solder cups? HORRIBLE. I'm going blind!
Click to expand...

Use crimp-pin DB25s. Much easier, neater and if you goof, easily remedied. I think the connections are stronger, also, as each crimp pin has a strain relief that clamps the insulation. I use a tool made by Molex that automatically crimps both the strain relief and connection in one operation.

About the only time I'll solder a D-sub is if there's no crimp version available, e.g. DB19--it's hard enough to find the connectors at all.
 
I'm in with the crimp pin crowd. I've made BC03-L and other cables with female berg connectors on one end and the crimp pin version is the way to go if there isn't another berg female on the other end of the cable. Jameco has the Value-Pro line which has double row female connectors that work just fine and don't break the bank. BC03-L uses less than 1/2 of the pins on the berg connector anyway, so the whole 40 pin ribbon cable is huge hassle.

I do have a proper AMP ratcheting crimper that sounds like Chuck's Molex tool.

Lou
 
I had to build the SDI cabling for my RA82 drive from scratch using the coax cables from VGA monitor cables and parts from the electronics shop. It was annoying as hell.
Then right after that, someone found out you could just use generic ethernet line instead.
 
NeXT said:
I had to build the SDI cabling for my RA82 drive from scratch using the coax cables from VGA monitor cables and parts from the electronics shop. It was annoying as hell.
Then right after that, someone found out you could just use generic ethernet line instead.
Click to expand...

That someone was me. However, I received my punishment, having also built an SDI cable from teeny tiny VGA cord coax before having the cat 5 realization.

Lou
 
Chuck(G) said:
Use crimp-pin DB25s. Much easier, neater and if you goof, easily remedied. I think the connections are stronger, also, as each crimp pin has a strain relief that clamps the insulation. I use a tool made by Molex that automatically crimps both the strain relief and connection in one operation.
Click to expand...

A very good call. I just ordered a crimping tool and crimp pins. This is a problem I face not-too-infrequently, so I know the tool will get good use over the years.
 
Lou - N2MIY said:
I'm in with the crimp pin crowd. I've made BC03-L and other cables with female berg connectors on one end and the crimp pin version is the way to go if there isn't another berg female on the other end of the cable.
Click to expand...

Another thing I've found useful is substituting Amphenol Spectra-Strip twisted-flat ribbon cable for standard ribbon when the conductors on one end have to be dealt with individually. You can still use IDC connectors, but the individual conductors separate out more easily:

ribboncable.jpg


It costs more, but sometimes you can find a deal in the surplus market. I suspect that signal transmission is better as a bonus.
 
I soldered db25's on custom rs232 cables in the 90's. One tool that was indispensable was from Black Box Corp, a "third hand" which was a weighted stand about 4" high with two adjustable arms that had alligator clips on the ends. You'd clip the db25 connector in the alligator clips and then would have two hands available for soldering without having to worry about the connector skittering off the edge of the table. I just took a quick look on Black Box's website and didn't find the gizmo, but I'm not sure what it's called so it may still exist. I still have mine here somewhere.
 
I use both those tools for single connections etc., but for DB25s and similar connectors I just use a regular vise or plug it into something heavy; the regular vise also does just fine for crimping IDCs.
 
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