Fett, I live in a Southamerican socialist sinkhole where I have to have friends who go to the US bring me PTFE wires. And yet, I refuse to use anything but for installs. I’ve rather have trash tools and workbench than PVC wires. You will need a good wire stripper, though. The normal ones don’t usually work because the PTFE is so thin and strong. And 63/37 tin, don’t skimp on the tin.
I recommend going lead-free.
Lead-free requires slightly higher temperatures, but it’s worth it.
More details: The Solder Specification
I was able to wrap up this side, not as many pics just plowed through to get it done. Before “buttoning” up I tested each connection with a multimeter end to end.
Then test fit into the hilt. Just a note, the button plunger is a tight fit, the button has to be completely flat and secured or the plunger can snag on it. Ended up catching the first attempt and had to replace the button, luckily I have spares or I would have been really ticked off. The tolerances on this hilt are super tight.
Will start the center chassis next chance I get, it will house the speakers and the matching 10 pole connector to this chassis to tie back to the board. I purposefully left a kill switch off this side so that everything is controlled by one switch on the “main” chassis with the board it in.
With things being tight and button damage a concern are you going with a recharge port or blade-plug charging to reduce the amount of times you actually would have to pull the chassis out to swap batteries?
No, I’m not a fan of recharge ports. I’m just documenting things I’ve run into and had to consider for anyone who comes along and tries to do similar install. Now that the button is fully seated and glued down it seems to be fine, it just has no margin of error with the plunger being so far extended into the chassis. On other hilts with this type of plunger they didn’t seem to stick so deep into the hilt as this one does, something for hilt designers to keep in mind maybe.
Got a little more done BUT ran into a small issue. The center chassis only accounted for the height of the connector pins, it didn’t account for needing to make contact and compress the pins so while testing there’s not enough (or any contact) with the 10 pole connector to work. I’ve sent some new measurements to Dan at Korbanth and he’s going to adjust and send a new center chassis.
In the interim I plan to start working on the other end chassis although I may need to adjust things so I’ll just “rough fit” for now until I can get the new center chassis in and test.
Wired up the 10-pole connector “female” side.
As well as the 2 speakers for the middle section (I’m wiring the speakers + and - opposite each other, even though they don’t directly face each other I want to be sure they don’t cancel each other out in the center section.
I got the center section “rough fit” (although I’ll be replacing with a slightly longer version once I receive.
When testing the connection inside the hilt there was no continuity through the connector, it looks like the center chassis was measured to fit inside the black collars for the hilt at the height of the pins so there’s a slight air gap between the connectors, we have to add a little to the length of the ends of the center chassis to allow the connector to contact and slightly compress the pins in the end chassis for a solid connection.
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Received the longer center chassis from Dan and works like a charm now. Before moving forward I did a rough fit and tested all of the connections for continuity when assembled.
The male side installed in one end.
With the collar added.
Rough fit of the female side of the 10-pole connector in the new center chassis
Then when the center part of the hilt is applied it now compresses the connector pins for contact Prior to lengthening the center chassis they were not making contact. Now when joining the center to the collar you have to apply a little pressure which compresses the pins for a solid connection and tighten the three set screws to secure.
I also learned my lesson on the first side chassis, I picked up some thinner gauge wire AND ran all of the wires before connecting anything. Still a super tight fit, especially the channels for the button and mini accents so had to open those up a bit even with the thinner gauge, but now the wires are in place, will start soldering the components next chance I get.
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