I am upgrading a GP7 to DCC and sound. I bought the board and speaker from Athearn, but alas they do not include the small plastic clips that hold the wires in place. Anyone know were to get them and what they are called?
Oh yeah...where do I find them? I am not ready to chance smoking the board learning how to solder.
Hi pkramer6:
Do you have a soldering iron? If so, what type (gun, pencil)? Take this as an opportunity to learn to solder. It is not difficult to learn and you don't have to spend a fortune on equipment and supplies.
If you want, I can post instructions on how to solder electronics. All you have to do is ask. If you do it right there is little chance that you will fry the board.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I have soldered before and I have both gun and pencil irons, I also have eletrical flux and solder, I just figured if someone knew what the connectors were called and where I could get them, I wouldn't have to put the old eyes and magnifying glasses to work.
Would you use a alligator clip on the board as a heat sink?
Thanks fro the reply dave.
Great that you got them soldered.
But, FYI, Atlas calls them "wire retainer for circuit board". See item 850125 on second page of: http://www.atlasrr.com/pdf/PartsPDFs/HOTMGP38-2Locomotive.pdf
pkramer6:
Sorry I haven't responded sooner. I'm glad to hear that you were able to solder the wires successfully.
I don't use heat sinks on circuit boards. I do use them on LEDs but more as a way to hold the LEDs while I solder the leads to them rather than to dissipate heat. What I use is a pair (or two) of small needle nose pliers with an elastic band around the handles. They have enough mass to dissipate the heat quickly. I also have a couple of pairs of tweezers that are sprung to keep the tips closed. Those are great for SMD LEDs.
I'm not sure that alligator clips with teeth would be really effective because they don't make much contact with the metal surface. All that touches the metal is the points of a couple of teeth. If you were to file the teeth flat so that there is a larger contact area they would work fine.
FWIW, this is how I do my soldering:
- I put a small dab of rosin flux on the component tab and then melt a small amount of solder on to the tab so that the solder forms a nice shiney, low 'blob'. There doesn't need to be tons of solder.
- Then I tin the wire by starting with a bit of flux on it.
- Then I cheat! Actually, all I mean is that I do things a bit differently from most folks in that I will put another very small amount of rosin paste on the solder blob on the component.
- Then I get a bit of excess solder on the freshly cleaned tip of the iron.
- Then, put the wire in place and touch the iron to the joint. Make sure you hold the wire still while the solder cools. If you have prepared the joint properly the solder should melt almost instantly and form a smooth surface (i.e. no wrinkles or dull spots). If the solder doesn't flow immediately take the iron away. Applying more heat won't make the solder flow any better but it can damage the circuit board.
When done, the solder should still be shiney. If it is dull or wrinkly in appearance you most likely have a 'cold' joint which can cause problems. If you move the wire while the solder is cooling then you will have a cold joint.
Some people suggest removing any left over flux with alcohol. I don't bother but I should because the leftover flux can cause oxidization.
By the way, I discovered that the plastic clips that you were originally looking for are not all the same size. I saved a bunch from decoder installations but when I went to use them some fit and some were too big. My first thought was that some of them were broken but they weren't. That convinced me to solder all the connections including on the trucks.
Regards,
Thread moved.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com