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Soldering small wires together trim servo lead extension

RV-Ogler

Active Member
RV-14 page 09-24 step 4. Trim servo leads.

Rather than use the molex connector for the WH-00073 extension I decided to eliminate the molex and just use solder and heat shrink. I soldered the wires together with out much problem and shrunk the individual 1/16” tubes around each connection, was happy with the result. Then I realized I forgot to put a section of larger tubing to go around the whole bundle to make it look tidy and give it some strain relief.

What would you do? Unsolder and start over? Not solder in the first place?

I wrapped electrical tape around it. I think it’ll do the job but it looks unprofessional.
 
Leave it be. You should put this on your annual checklist and take a look at it each year. If at that point it bothers you or if you find any fatigue in the soldering, then redo it. Just my opinion!
 
I'm with Bruce, don't worry about it.

On the other hand I guess it depends on how quickly you could redo it. If you are like me then every time you look at it or even think about it you will wish you re-did it.
 
My preference here is to crimp on regular density Dsub contacts, male on one side and female on the other, connect, and then slide over a length of heat shrink and shrink it in place. Crimp connections are almost always better in a high vibration environment, and you can easily disconnect by slicing around the mate point with a razor blade and pull them apart. I found using color shrink tube make it easy to put back together after you pull it apart ... for painting or some sort of maintenance. Just match the colors and you're good go!

For super robustness, wrap the final bundle with self fusing silicone tape.
 
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My preference here is to crimp on regular density Dsub contacts, male on one side and female on the other, connect, and then slide over a length of heat shrink and shrink it in place. Crimp connections are almost always better in a high vibration environment, and you can easily disconnect by slicing around the mate point with a razor blade and pull them apart. I found using color shrink tube make it easy to put back together after you pull it apart ... for painting or some sort of maintenance. Just match the colors and you're good go!

For super robustness, wrap the final bundle with self fusing silicone tape.

That is what I tried initially, however the extension supplied by Vans is 26 awg and the female Dsub would not successfully crimp to wire that small.
 
26;awg crimping

That is what I tried initially, however the extension supplied by Vans is 26 awg and the female Dsub would not successfully crimp to wire that small.

For 26 awg wire, often times i had to double it back to make a thicker bundle in the contact. A 26 awg wire doubled back is equivalent to two gauges lower, so 2x 26 awg is same as 22 awg. So use the 22 awg crimp setting. (This should be verified on a spare contact and a scrap piece of wire.) At my day job, we allow up to three wires per crimp, but for the amateur, i would not do more than 2 since the math for the proper crimp setting gets funky with three wires.
 
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