You should NEVER solder wires. Crimping them is MUCH better. The solder wicks up the wire and becomes brittle over time. I was skeptical at first when I heard this until I was tracing a "broken" wire. Trying to figure out why my dash lights weren't working. I had soldered a piece of wire onto the factory harness and it broke. Right at the solder junction. I cut the wire and all the solder away and used a step but connector.

Solder = bad

Crimping = bestus

 

wow dude .. thats like saying you shouldnt spot weld your chassis, but instead, use pop rivots instead..

crimps you would loose resistance.. well in the r/c car world that is very important... maybe you just had a bad soldering job. I'll take my chances, thanks.

I guess i dont need that first relay after all.. ill cancel it out of my setup

 

Ummmm, no. You couldn't be more wrong if you tried

You're right, you would LOOSE resistance with crimps. Soldering gains resistance. Resistance causes heat. Heat is bad. Soldering is bad.

Yeah, I'll just listen to my EMS guru who has been building harnesses professionally for >25 years. The same guy who has worked on countless 300+mph Bonneville cars, Bikes, Lemans cars, 980BHP Rotary dragsters, ALMS teams, And lets not forget has done plenty of work for and with Jim Downing.

Oh yeah - taken DIRECTLY from the Motec manual







But I guess with all that REMOTE CONTROL TOY CAR experience you have, we should listen to you becuase that obviously trumps the experience base that I'm pulling my advice from.

 

When TitaniumTT is referring to crimping, he is referring to proper crimping and not the crimping done with hardware store but splices and a set of Vice Grips.

A proper crimp is fine and highly reliable. Tell me how many solder joints are found in the typical aircraft...none.

Proper means using a high quality crimping tool, and good crimp splices that have a heat shrinkable jacket and internal dielectric grease. Something almost no one does and hence the crimps become unreliable very quickly.

That said, proper soldering works fine as well. The key again is proper. The correct amount of solder, the correct amount of heat, and good heat shrink (adhesive lined) to make the physical connection needed and keep the joint protected. Soldering flux must also be removed.

 

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-m...vs-solder.html

I buy my electrical supplies from Waytek www.waytekwire.com

 

Also tell me how many solder joints Mazda used in thier harnesses? I have found NONE on an S4 & I went through every wire in every harness.

I don't like the marine heatshring but connectors. The crimpers that I own have a tendency to tear the heatshrink making them virually useless. You need to apply adhesive lines heat shrink anyway. I always buy my butts in bulk and without protective coverings.

Right-on Macz. I love waytek but thier minimums get a littel PITAsy. If you need a small batch of products, TerminalSupplyCompany is a great place as is DelCity.net.

 

Yeah, Delcity and TSC are also great places. Speaking of them, I've got a few of their catalogs hanging out under the table in the living room

Austin, keep the updates coming! Hopefully the thread I posted will change your perception of crimps I was also thoroughly surprised when I read it last year.

 

I get a phonecall about once a month from TSC telling me about thier specials. They're gonna love me when my buddies build picks up some steam.

I like TSC for the smaller stuff but for the bigger orders, Waytek is about 1/2 the price.

 

I put the coolant gauge sender in the stock location its 1/8 BNPT and I thought it was 1/8 NPT it went it rather well but was a little tight.

 

source for 12v ignition to the relay


Fan control sender sensor installed


Relay and wiring tucked away



Heres the VDO temp sender and gauge



Thats fine some prefer crimping and all... I personally prefer a clean solder job over crimps any day. I dont plan to have my wires be tugged at with 50 ibs of force on em nor do i expect open solder points to be seeing open weather environments anyways.. I would need to purchase the correct crimp tool and crimps if done that way.

 

Sigh

It's not just the tugging its the vibrations that kill a solder joint. The one that broke on me had 0 load on it..... EVER becuase of the way that it was ran and secured. It was the vibrations that killed that one.

 

I always hated crimping and loved soldering-But I got better! Thanks for the education, guys.

From now on, I will crimp. Bought a nice ratcheting crimper this weekend.

 

wouldnt using teflon tape on the temp sensor cause it to take longer to heat up?

 

Negative. Well, that is unless you wrap the entire bulb of the sender with tape.....but if you just put it on the threads and trim back the rest (as you should) then its absolutely fine. The element is in the tip of the sender, as long as its blowing in the breeze you're golden.

Also keep in mind, you always want to apply the tape in the direction its threading so as not to unravel the tape when threading in the item.

 

Lots of good info in this thread. I've always assumed soldering was best for wiring, but I guess you learn something new everyday.

 

Im thinking about installing a LED fan indicator light next to my water temp gauge, i can just tap a wire off the fan postive and feed it thru to the interior, and then typically ground the other side. Think 1 12v led will add any additional draw to the system?

*dont pay attention to the temps in this pic, was b4 i worked some kinks out

 

The current draw on LED's are so tiny that they're negligible. You should have no problems.

 

Thats what the 5th pin on the relay is for. Test it with your multi meter.

 

Uh, no.

A 5-terminal relay is SPDT. All the terminals have a specific electrical purpose. There is no need to test anything.



86 and 85 are the coil. Ground one, supply 12v control voltage to the other and the coil is energized. In this case, Hypertek is using a grounding switch to activate the coil.

30= common. This is the power for the load; should be fused and directly from the battery or fuse block.

87=N/O or the Normally Open. This circuit is off until the coil is energized.

87A=N/C or the Normally Closed. This circuit is ON until the coil is energized.

A 4-terminal relay is SPST. It eliminates 87a or the N/C.

If you want to light an led when the fan runs, connect it to the 87, along with the fan load.

 

To add a bit of fuel to the fire, I have run across 5 terminal SPST relays before. It was seriously confusing when I installed one and everything acted wacky. After checking the relay, I found it was indeed a SPST 5 terminal relay. In fact, all of them I purchased in that batch were...

The LED as an indicator will work fine. Just make sure that it's connected to the relay trigger wire and not the fan motor. Otherwise when the fan freewheels it will generate electricity and the LED will be on anytime the car is moving.

Asking if the tiny current an LED uses will overload the system after just installing an e-fan worries me.

 

thanks guys, i actually removed that 5 pin relay from the picture.. just using the fan controller since it uses its own relay.

Not sure how I would tap into that for the LED positive since you guys say that the fan free spinning might produce some current that might light it up if i tap into the fan power wire..

I probably wont even need the LED, just thought it would be a good idea to see that things work when driving.

 

LOL yeah sorry my bad, I read it quickly and thought he was after a light to indicate the fan wasn't working.....

 

Really? I had never considered that possibility. I have to try it to see.

BTW, Aaron, if the LED is wired in to the coil circuit and that circuit is made by a grounding temp switch like Hypertek is using, won't the LED remain lit any time the ignition key is on? How could you resolve that issue?

I do like the idea of a 'fan on' LED indicator located next to the temp gauge.

 

The LED will just have to be connected in a manner which makes sense based on the circuit. I didn't look at the circuit before I posted. Generally connecting it in parallel with the relay coil will do the job fine. Make sure to use an appropriate dropping resistor.

Yes, a spinning e-fan will easily power an LED if the LED is connected in parallel with the motor.

 

I do have a quick question.. I bought the same fan controller except it's the radiator push probe one and not the one used here.. Can I simply cut the push probe off and connect and screw type probe? I think I could probably return this one I have but I don't know.. I think it's just be easier if I could just switch it.