Soldering vs other kinds of connections

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Cygnusyyc

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I'm dying to hear what you guys make of the different methods of making connections from power cables 3/18 SJOOW cables to RayWu or X male/female connectors etc.
I personally tried my hand at solder/shrink tube verses 16-14 bare butt connectors and shrink. I finally decided to go with butt connections strictly for speed.
As for connections between pixels/nodes from one prop to the next I've been using Experience lights Clickits. I've found them super fast and reliable about 95% of the time. Most flaws come from me being impatient and doing it too fast, not inserting wires 100% all the way or so on. (attaboy Cyg...)
There's also now bullet connectors that are weatherproof and include solder.
Hmmmm... I may have to give those a try.
Anyone else have ideas, permanent solutions for the connection issues? Same goes for larger gauge power injection cables.
If someone has a better method for solder/shrink I'm not aware of I'm dying to hear it.

Thanks,
Cyg.
 
The Scotchlok connectors are a fast reliable way of making joins providing that it's similar sized cables and the correct sized joiner is used.
Shrink sleeves that have low melting point solder and hot melt glue in a single heat shrinkable unit are handy and can be used when there is a bit of a discrepancy in the cable sizes.
A Makita (or similar) battery powered soldering iron is rather handy for doing repairs out in the yard. I've used battery and gas ones and I'll use my Makita battery based T12 soldering iron every time now. A soldered join and 2 layers of heatshrink should last essentially forever. I tend to use clear heatshrink that shrinks and sticks beautifully but isn't UV stable with a black or other coloured heatshrink either over each wire or potentially over all 3 for pixel wiring.
 
I 99.9% hand soldier all my pigtail connectors and then use heat shrink tubing with glue over each individual soldier joint and then another layer of heat shrink tubing over all the connectors. The one and only time I ever tried to use heat shrink soldier butt connectors the string failed immediately next to the connectors. It could have been coincidence.

I do have soldier butt connectors and also scotch locks available if needed for a quick repair though.
 
Haisstronica marine grade (🙄) solder seals and a butane hand torch, whether it is temporary or permanent. (Note that I live in a relatively cool, dark place.) This has never been the source of any significant number of failures.

In the few cases where I soldered and heat shrunk, the glue-lined heatshrink is a must-have.

My (first-gen) clickits suffered water intrusion, and they're a bit snaggy, so I swore them off quite quickly.
 
Controversial, but I could not tell you the last time i picked up my soldering iron.
I just twist the stripped bare wires together and seal with heatshrink, both on the individual cores and around the outer cable cover.
Its easy to repair if required (not as often as you think) and it just works for me.
Soldering SHOULD be recommended to ensure a strong electrical connection between 2 pieces, but I've had a display for 10+ years without it, just saying...
 
I used to solder everything, but solder has potential dry joint problems if you don’t heat the wires properly, the insulation melts if you heat them too much, and it doesn’t stand up to vibrations and movement.

Then I remembered the industrial switchboards at work always used crimped bootlaces. I bought a pack of them with sleeves and sleevless for joining two wires and got one of those ratchet crimpers and automatic wire strippers. It is lightning fast to use the wire strippers and crimp them together. Much easier than trying to get two floating wires to stay close enough while you solder them.

You still need a heat gun for putting heat shrink on. I usually do two layers, one thin layer over the individual wires and then the glue heat shrink over the top of the three for extra waterproofing in the tropics.
 
when joining 3 or more cables, you end up with two or more cables coming out one side of the heat shrink with gaps that the heat shrink won't shrink to fill. I tend to add a squirt of silicon. I use a syringe without the needle filled with neutral cure silicon to make it easy to add to small opening of heat shrink.

100% solder everything as per above posts before show starts, 100% use Scotchlok/Clickits/whatever is at hand during December to get it going.

Then remove and solder all temp connection during January. (Or, you know, next November when I think about it)
 
I just recently got some of the Clickits, only used 2 so far, but were super simple and worked,
Not sure if I trust them long term at this stage,
I initially got them for quick repairs mid season, with the idea of resoldering after the seasons finished,
but guess time will tell, (especially if left outside all year etc)
 
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