Heading O/T I know, but if you need 'merkin connectors or component (or even just difficult to source stuff) try Mouser.Delivery and tax bumps the price up a bit, but they are QUICK. Ordered some stuff Friday lunchtime, all the way from Dallas; arrived before lunch on Monday.
The bits I ordered came from Dallas. Tracked FedEx package, first stop Memphis, then across the pond…
Well the Maplin spades seem to fit quite nicely and do not easily slide off. So tomorrow I shall cut the original bulb holders off and crimp these spades on and pop a photo up…think this problem is solved…and if they are a little loose at all I reckon a little nipping up with pliers will be all that’s required.
Oh right! Beg their pardon then …
After much effort and time I have cut all the large spade connectors from the original wires that go to the bulbs and put the mini spades on that I got from Maplin to connect to the LED solder tags. Squeezing the mini spades gave quite a good fit but they’re not going to stay in place. Plan B: I am going to cut all those mini spades off and have a go at soldering the wires directly to the LED solder tags as I don’t think there is any way that I can think of to robustly secure the mini spades…am open to suggestions however I think if I can ease the tags away from the body of the LED and put a thin piece of card between the tag and the plastic body I should hopefully stop myself melting the body! That’s the theory at least. Ah well, I shall give that a go next week. Here’s some photos from what I did this morning.
Heat shrink slid over the actual male/female bit may be better than cardboard? Take care though, while shorts will ruin you day it is often better to let water out rather than make half successful attempts to stop it getting in.
Andy
With a bit of care, soldering those shouldn’t be hard. As I said above, a decent 40/50W iron with some mass to it, and tin all the bits first.
Thanks for the advice guys…my handiwork will be up here next week!
And heatshrink on over the soldered joint.
I have ordered some wide diameter heatshrink today to go over the connectors as a pair.
Ooh, er, no, separately! They could end up being shorted together
ah…right…I did wonder about that…ok…separately it is
You could then put larger diameter heat shrink around the lot afterwards as well if you want.
So individually heat shrink and then put the larger diameter over both the terminals and the bit of the body of the LED that separates the terminals? That’s almost what I had in mind apart from not thinking about sleaving them separately before putting heat shrink over the lot
That could be proper job I reckon.