[Fot] Electric connections

[Randall]

---- Christopher Bock <SeaCubeCo at aol.com> wrote: 
> Amici
> 
> What is the best practice for electric connections, crimp or solder?

Just in case you haven't already gotten every possible response, my preference is to do both.  Strip off the cheap plastic insulator (or buy uninsulated terminals to start with), insert the wire so a little bit protrudes from the crimp area, crimp firmly, then solder the protruding end.  Add some heat shrink to cover the area and provide strain relief, the result will outlast you.

Years ago I worked for a company that installed minicomputer systems on board seismic survey ships.  During a survey, those ships would set off the equivalent of a keg (or more) of dynamite under the stern of the ship, every 5-8 seconds, for days on end.  Our factory used carefully calibrated ratcheting crimpers and expensive connectors (gold plated in many cases).  And yet, almost every trip I went out on, I found bad connections.  I learned to repair them with the crimp plus solder method (using an ordinary hand crimper), never found one of those that had failed (without extenuating circumstances, like the cable ripped out of the housing).

Randall