[hpsdr] Excalibur Finished - Some Questions

[John Westmoreland]

Hello Giovanni,

I have everything buttoned up right now - and am running a phase test on
Excalibur - but I can take some pics next time I have it apart - but here's
what I did:

1)  Put 0.10" male TH post in each hole and soldered them in.  For the
benefit of illustration - here's an example:
http://www.proto-advantage.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1900035 -
one of those things per hole.

2)  I soldered about a 6" piece of stranded insulated wire to each post.  I
wanted to come up with a better connector system - but the wire end of this
that is soldered to the post is easy enough to clean up later.

3)  I then soldered a circular connector to each end of the fours wires:
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/2-36153-2/A27241CT-ND/388647 -
something like this - I just found what was handy around the shack.  Note I
like to solder these vs. crimp because the solder is more reliable - maybe
I should qualify that - the solder is more reliable when I am the one doing
the soldering. ;)

4)  I then used the wooden end of those Q-Tip things you can buy to clean
off solder flux, paste, etc. to use as the four guides for the four grounds
on the front of Alex that fit into Pandora.

5)  For the 'rear' of Alex - I simply screwed each round terminal in with
each of the four corners on the Alex chassis.  Note - once you do this for
front and back - the two mount holes in the bottom of Pandora and on the
back flange of Alex no longer line up.  This is unfortunate.

6)  I then carefully placed Alex into the Pandora chassis.  Note I had to
use a little Kapton tape to keep the terminal rings and guide sticks in
place while placing Alex into Pandora.  Don't use too much Kapton or you
won't be able to remove the guide sticks and/or you won't be able to screw
in the mounting screw.

7)  Carefully remove one guide stick at a time - and use a small punch
and/or screwdriver to make sure the terminal ring doesn't drop out of
place.  Note you may have to place pressure on the back of Alex to the
front of Pandora to keep the terminal ring in place while you screw in the
screw.  The Kapton tape will keep it in place if strategically placed.

8)  Repeat 7 for the other 3 corners.

Sounds a lot more complicated that it is - and it produced good/great
results - but, makes taking apart and putting back not a lot of fun - hence
why I want to come up with a better connector scheme.  But, results are
worth it.

HTH.

73's,
John
AJ6BC



On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 11:12 PM, Giovanni Santin <gsantin at mclink.it> wrote:

> Hi John, how did you solve the connectors grounding on Alex ? I tried to
> solder them to a copper sheet with close fitting holes, but with no
> success. Bringing the bnc connector body to the correct temperature for
> soldering proved impossible with my soldering iron. May be I could use a
> propane torch to heat them but burning the whole board in the process.
> I used the through holes as it is explained on Alex manual, but on 10
> meters there are still few birdies.
>
> 73, Giovanni, IZ0SQZ
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Westmoreland <john at westmorelandengineering.com>
> Sender: hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.orgDate: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 11:54:45
> To: Joe Martin K5SO<k5so at valornet.com>
> Cc: HPSDR list<hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org>
> Subject: Re: [hpsdr] Excalibur Finished - Some Questions
>
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