Soldering Electronics

[mitunnelrat]

Does anyone here do electronics repair? I learned a little lesson in the difference between airsoft replica and original equipment this week, and need a couple wires swapped and resoldered in a PTT assembly I bought. From what I'm reading, the mic+ and speaker+ wires (labeled 2 & 3 in many units) are backwards from what they need to be for use with my headset and radios.

Its reportedly an easy thing to swap and fix, but I don't have the tools for it.

Anyone able to help?

[bacpacker]

I could help you out, if I was near by.

You could probably pick up a cheap soldering iron and small roll of solder for less than $20 at radio shack, or wallyworld. You'll want a small set of needle nose pliers as well. Moving wires around isn't to hard to do in most cases.

Let me know what I can do to help.

[mitunnelrat]

Wow. For some reason I had it in my head it'd be more expensive to tool up for this.

I know I've got some needle nose pliers appropriate to it, and unless it comes in different sizes/ types there's solder at my dad's, he just said his soldering iron would be too big for this.

Thanks BP. I'll get what I need then and take a stab at it! Stand by for questions or results! Lol

[bacpacker]

I'm guessing your wires are fairly small gauge (thin) as compared to house wiring. If so you just need a small iron 25 or so watts. Also be sure and use a rosin core solder, NOT acid core. Be certain of this. Most electronic solder is typically pretty small diameter. Solder for plumbing it typically 4-10 times the diameter. A small roll of solder should be available for $10 or less. I may be off on the prices some, but I wouldn't think that far. If you have trouble locating some, I'll be glad to cut a length and mail it to you.
Post up some pics of the board/connections in question if you want. I'll be happy to take a look.

[helomech]

Only thing about soldering is to do a hot solder vs a cold one. Heat up the wire you want to solder so that the heat from the wire melts the solder. You don't want to melt the solder by touching it to the gun the solder is not a strong that way.

[bacpacker]

Helo is dead on with this. Your solder should "flow" and attach itself to both materials. Once it's done that you should get a fairly shiny look to the solder once it cools. You need to heat both the wire and connector at the same time to get a strong solder joint.

[helomech]

Helo is dead on with this. Your solder should "flow" and attach itself to both materials. Once it's done that you should get a fairly shiny look to the solder once it cools. You need to heat both the wire and connector at the same time to get a strong solder joint.

You explain things much better than I do.

[mitunnelrat]

Ok, home now with solder, and a butane micro torch (with soldering tip for electronics) at hand. I can't post pics, but the following link shows exactly what I'm looking at, excepting mine is all gooped up with epoxy or something that I'll need to get peeled out of the way.

http://airsoftpacific.com/viewtopic.php?p=648458#p648458

My dad solders. I may try talking him into helping, but I'm not hopeful, lol. He razzed me for not getting a US made PTT in the first place.

[mitunnelrat]

Ok, now that I'm getting the wires exposed I'm confused and not sure this was my issue. In their post, the description is:

Before: #2 wire Red; #3 wire White

My #3 wire is red, and its hard to see with the way this crap peels off, but it appears my #2 may be white...

I'm going to figure this out, one way or another.

[mitunnelrat]

Alright, here's where i'm at. I got all crap out of the way with "minimum" disruption - meaning I only broke two solders. Luckily enough, there's enough excess I can redo this without much trouble. One, a short white piece, ran to the switch. Another I'll get to in a minute. What may be a bigger issue, unless ya'll have suggestions, is with a couple other wires. I didn't break any, but I split the insulation on a few and exposed the wire as I was peeling the epoxy off. They are definitely Tie-knee!

Can I just tape over them like I have stereo wires in the past, or is there a better fix due to their size, or, will I have to <gulp> cut off behind them and redo everything?

Now for the tricky part, since my colors were already placed where that post says they're supposed to be. I'll be working to figure this out before bed, but I checked the circuit board, and

green = op. That ran directly to the switch, so I'm guessing that "op" is "open"?
red = m+. Which I'm having to believe is "microphone positive"
white = sp-
blue = sp+ so they're the speaker positive and negative.

So, back to the numbered end, #1 is a clear wire. Its the other one I broke the solder to. Its circuit end is labeled "busy". There's lots of wiggle room for fixing it.
#2 = white = sp-
#3 = red = m+
#4 = blue = sp+

According to this comment,

In airsoft comms, the U93's Speaker+ and Mic+ are actually reversed. All it takes is tracking down which wire goes to which connector and then swapping the speaker+ wire with the mic+ wire.

I may actually want to try swapping #3 and #4 instead of #2 and #3. Failing that I can restore it to original and try swapping #2 and #4, since the m+ wire seems to be in the correct spot...

Now, can someone expand my education please, and explain why the terminal ends matter on a round plug. I can see enough to surmise the location on the pin is probably what matters, given they're all at different heights.

[ElevenBravo]

I honestly wish you were closer, Id take you to the man cave where the electronics bench is, and SHOW you what you need to know. Short of that, any help I offer via the forums, with your level of knowledge & experience (please, no disrespect intended) would only add the the confusion.

You may be a bit over your head, but I do salute your enthusiasm!!

EB

[mitunnelrat]

I am in over my head, so I've got everything - radios, headset, and ptt - boxed up and ready to visit a local shop my dad recommended.
I have admitted defeat. Lol

And thanks for the offer. I appreciate it.

[ElevenBravo]

It takes a man with ego to be bull headed...
It takes real man to accept defeat!

Let us know what the outcome is please...

EB

[mitunnelrat]

Will do. I'd like to get this done ASAP. There's a "HAM in a day" class on April 7 I'd like to attend. It'd be nice to have my set up fully operational by time my ticket comes in, and I still need to get the radios reprogrammed.

[bacpacker]

Glad to hear your going for your ticket. :)

[mitunnelrat]

Its time, that's for sure. I like the idea of this one too. Classes/ study from 1-8p, and the administer the test from 8-10.

I've done well in classes like this before so I'm pretty confident I'll do ok.

[bacpacker]

You'll do fine. I'm sure they will focus on the test material. Best o luck on it.

[mitunnelrat]

Thank you!

[bacpacker]

How did the repair go? We need an update when time permits.

[mitunnelrat]

I haven't gotten it done yet due to my car. I will update as soon as I have more info.

[alpmco]

Wish I could help. I got the tools but over the years have lost the eyes! Close in solder work is a killer these days. I have a couple HF Rigs I want to open up to xmit on all freq but the jumpers are so small and close together ...
Good luck on the class. I need to move up to Extra class for may trip to Europe next summer.

Clarification! I'm not blind, just over the years I can't see well up close. Have to use 3X hardwae store glasses to see the fine stuff and 1.75X to see the computer or gun sights. Really not that bad I suppose. :)

[mitunnelrat]

Hey al! Its good to see you! I was beginning to think you were abducted by "them".

[mitunnelrat]

No class now either :(
My car still isn't right, and I get the feeling I'd burn an entire month's fuel budget to go across state for it.

[mitunnelrat]

Well, I finally got an electric soldering iron and tried my hand at this again. I kinda-sorta got it working too. The wires in it are just way too damn thin! lol... The PTT cable is quite a bit shorter now, and I wound up needing to splice one of the wires, so the audio quality is horrible and I'm just going to replace it. I only drove on so I could pass the info along to a friend with the same setup. With the right wiring schematic and a more experienced guy working on it he should be golden.