JUST ANOTHER BUSY SUNDAY

This morning I slept in until 8am, as I had waited for EVTV to load and did not get finished watching it until 3am. Saturday female d-sub connector was made up with the wires coming from the traction and 12 volt batteries, in addition to 12 volt switched power for the instrument panel digital volt/amp meters. The connector just did not turn out good. I can't see, haven't soldered for some time, and was really never good at soldering anyway, so the d-sub connector looked like crap!

D-SUB FEMALE CONNTECOR

FIRST ATTEMPT OF SOLDERING

As you can see, solder flowed onto the flange and I burnt the insulator between the pins. Not real pretty but I guess, it was good practice.

The first thing Sunday morning, a trip was made  back to Radio Shack to pick up another d-sub female and also a male connector, as the store I went to Saturday did not have the male. Radio Shack is high for these connectors but I wanted them this weekend and of course, there is not shipping charge if they are picked up in the store. Ok, I had the connectors I needed but also picked up some thinner gauge solder as this should help with the solder overflow onto the connector flange. The second problem I had was my inability to see the little connector where the wire needed to be soldered, so made a trip to Dollar General and picked up some stronger reading glasses to magnify the connector when it is being soldered. 

READING GLASSES 

It turned out being a beautiful day in central Ohio, so to help with seeing the solder joint, a little work bench was set up on the Better Place box that is sitting outside my garage so I could work in sunlight. To make sure I wasn't missing something, a Youtube vides was watched and I did pick up the tip of putting a spot of solder on the iron first and then putting it on the joint to transfer the heat to the connection. Everything worked, as my second attempt resulted in a much better looking connector.

FEMALE D-SUB CONNECTOR 2ND ATTEMPT

Now onto the male connector inside the car. By now I was getting a little more comfortable making the solder joints and in no time, had all of the connections made.

D-SUB MALE CONNECTOR

So as to keep with the tradition of going out to the garage, falling down drunk and playing with high voltage, a break was taken and I had a couple of  Stone Ruinations. Ok, I wasn't falling down drunk but 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

STONE BREWERY RUINATIUS

After my little break, I am going to start reassembling the instrument cluster, so may post later tonight.

Thanks for stopping by,

Randy