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Keep QMX L401 Loop Intact or Cut into Two Wires ?
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I'm building the QMX and have the L401 installed and ready to solder.
The manual says to cut the wires underneath the board and solder. Does this mean to cut the loop into two separate wires and solder them in the same hole ? If that's the case, why not keep the loop intact ? Many thanks to anyone who can provide some clarity !? |
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Hi Bill,
Even if you keep the loop intact, after soldering you'll probably have to knip the excess length, so that it doesn't touch the case. If you arranged so that the loop (L401 tap) has optimum length, you don't have to cut it after. But after soldering the tap, it doesn't matter anyway, since the two wires are connected, with or without the loop. As a matter of personal preference, I leave the loop (and the other coil ends as well) a little bit longer so I can scrape the enamel more easily. Then I solder them and finally cut them to length. Hope it helps and good luck with the build! Regards, YO3GFH op. Adrian |
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You didn't mention which QMX version you are building ... High or low ... But for either version,? any loop(s) do in fact both go into the larger holes indicated in the specific instructions for the version and both get soldered there. You can certainly cut to separate the loop before hand, but make sure you keep track of them and that both are pulled firmly though the single hole where they are supposed to go.? DO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SCRAPED OFF THE ENAMEL THOROUGHLY FOR ANY TOROID OR TRANSFORMER WINDINGS. Hans details his wire cutter edge scrape method in the instructions. Patience and gentle going with an Xacto knife works too. Or as some do, burn it back to the correct distance relative to where the wires exit on the top side of the board beforehand? with any of the several methods you can find with a simple Google search.?? NOW, having said that, on that particular L401and a couple others, if you use the burning method you can easily get too much tinned solder on the wires with the burning method and they won't go through the holes.? I use the burning method with the component out of the board. I first clip the wires to a long enough length to stick at least 5mm on the bottom side, insert the component into the holes, and then mark the wire at the bottom or top of each hole with a fine point Sharpie. I remove the component and improve the marks all the way around each wire. Then I burn and tin back to the top mark if I have one, or about 2mm past the bottom mark towards the top side if I couldn't get a mark on the wire in the top side. I dress up each tinned wire by scraping off any enamel crud that might still remain on the tinned portion and also scrape off any enamel that appears to not have burned off:? GENTLY, with a sharp #11 Xacto knife. HOWEVER, when you get to T-507 the single pass-through wires are thicker and as noted in the instructions you probably won't be able to get those through the holes provided if you pre burned and tinned.? So I just did the same mark the wires procedure and scraped the enamel off cleanly and GENTLY with the Xacto knife before inserting and soldering. Didn't have a single problem with poor solder joints on any of the wound components. And, didn't have to apply lots of heat for long periods to get enamel burned off in situ .... Greg KI4NVX
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Good luck.
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Work smart. Pay it forward if it works for you too. :) Greg
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