I have been wrestling with a problem on my AU-9900 for a while now – namely that a previous owner had smashed up all of the smaller crimp terminals, removed and discarded the nylon connector blocks and, soldered all of them to their respective pins. See pic “F-2573-before_detail” (1) :sigh:
I have searched in vain for 5mm pitch PCB headers arranged as 2, 3, 4, 5 pins +1 pin spaced at 7.5mm – absolutely unobtanium now (unless you know different?). So, during another recent search for these I came up with the crimp housings alone – but not with the spaced pin arrangement. So, I thought, if I was to purchase ‘2 to 5 way’ connector blocks plus ‘1 way’ single ones and some crimp terminals, I might be able to do something See pic “Crimps&blocks” (2)
I ordered them up and began work – has anybody got any idea how many individual small crimps there are in an AU-9900 ? – I’ll tell you it’s 74 – I nearly went nuts doing them – I found I had to do them in 5’s to avoid frustration getting the better of me, although (sensing the end) I did do 28 in one day I decided to solder the crimp terminals, as I don’t have a crimp tool, and will be unlikely to need one again, and they are expensive for a good quality one.
This is an example of what it looked like before see pic “F-2573-before” (3)
And afterwards see pic “F-2573-after” (4) & “F-2573-detail_crimp” (5)
I am pleased to add that although the scope for putting the crimps in the blocks in the wrong order – or simply plugging them on the wrong way round is immense – I made NO mistakes. I will be adding small spots of paint to the blocks to ensure that no mistakes will be made in future service events, as the blocks are now non-polarised.
The downside is that the PCB header pins are still coated with solder - although I did clean these thoroughly using braid and flux cleaner - I do not think they were gold plated - I think nickel plated originally. (to whoever did this, it's best if we never meet )
So the inside of the amp looks ‘right’ again – and the amp sounds great too
I have searched in vain for 5mm pitch PCB headers arranged as 2, 3, 4, 5 pins +1 pin spaced at 7.5mm – absolutely unobtanium now (unless you know different?). So, during another recent search for these I came up with the crimp housings alone – but not with the spaced pin arrangement. So, I thought, if I was to purchase ‘2 to 5 way’ connector blocks plus ‘1 way’ single ones and some crimp terminals, I might be able to do something See pic “Crimps&blocks” (2)
I ordered them up and began work – has anybody got any idea how many individual small crimps there are in an AU-9900 ? – I’ll tell you it’s 74 – I nearly went nuts doing them – I found I had to do them in 5’s to avoid frustration getting the better of me, although (sensing the end) I did do 28 in one day I decided to solder the crimp terminals, as I don’t have a crimp tool, and will be unlikely to need one again, and they are expensive for a good quality one.
This is an example of what it looked like before see pic “F-2573-before” (3)
And afterwards see pic “F-2573-after” (4) & “F-2573-detail_crimp” (5)
I am pleased to add that although the scope for putting the crimps in the blocks in the wrong order – or simply plugging them on the wrong way round is immense – I made NO mistakes. I will be adding small spots of paint to the blocks to ensure that no mistakes will be made in future service events, as the blocks are now non-polarised.
The downside is that the PCB header pins are still coated with solder - although I did clean these thoroughly using braid and flux cleaner - I do not think they were gold plated - I think nickel plated originally. (to whoever did this, it's best if we never meet )
So the inside of the amp looks ‘right’ again – and the amp sounds great too
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