Pepper Spray PCB - SPDT mounting question

[Bret608]

Hi everybody,

So I am in the process of populating my Pepper Spray board and it's going pretty well so far considering it's my first build! I am anticipating a hitch coming up here and am hoping you all can steer me in the right direction.

The board has large holes that can accomodate the solder lugs on an SPDT switch (for the diodes), which is very handy. The problem is that I ordered a pre-drilled enclosure with the DC jack at the top, right next to where I want the SPDT to go. If it was on the side, I wouldn't be writing this right now! When the jack is in, I can't get the PCB down onto the lugs on the SPDT, which I mounted in a hole near the top of the face of the enclosure.

I think this means I'll need to wire the switch in instead of board-mounting it. I emailed Brian, and he had a really good suggestion, i.e. use a larger gauge wire (such as AWG 22) so as to fill up those large holes a bit better and still solder effectively. I wanted to ask here if using component leads might also be a good way to go. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

I hope this was the right place to post this, by the way...I thought putting it in Tech Help might be going too far as this isn't a problem just yet.

Thanks,

Bret

[k.rock!]

You can always bend the wire onto itself. Maybe melt some solder into the pad to create some "cushion" for it so that it's completely filled (don't go crazy melting a pool of solder though, keep it minimal). Then apply heat, and insert the wire. If necessary, melt a bit more to stick the wire completely to the pad.


-Kaleb

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

There's a lot of builders who save their component leads and re-use them. That would work fine, wiring it normally like Madbean said or what Kaleb is suggesting!!

[Bret608]

Thanks for all the tips! This gives me at least three good options. Kaleb, when you mentioned bending the wire onto itself, did you mean in order to give it some more thickness? I've got some solid core 24 gauge that could do the trick. Also, I had no idea it would be possible to fill that whole pad! I will definitely try this whether I go with wire or old leads.

[k.rock!]

Thanks for all the tips! This gives me at least three good options. Kaleb, when you mentioned bending the wire onto itself, did you mean in order to give it some more thickness? I've got some solid core 24 gauge that could do the trick. Also, I had no idea it would be possible to fill that whole pad! I will definitely try this whether I go with wire or old leads.

No problem dude! Yeah, just strip the jacket of the wire and fold the exposed copper wire onto itself. You can heat a little bit of solder on the folded wire so that way you don't have to put ton of solder on the pad itself. Just put enough on the pad so that when you heat it to insert the wire, the solder on the wire will melt and combine with the solder on the pad. Careful not to create cold solder joints

Good luck!

-Kaleb

[Bret608]

Thanks! That makes total sense. It may take a week or so but I will report back once I get this knocked out. With any luck I won't have to take this over to Tech Help!