Using the Leaf for power in a Blackout: MY "Leaf to Home"

[JeremyW]

I would strongly recommend against soldering. The only thing that is going to properly heat a connector and heavy gauge wire up hot enough would be a blow torch. Crimping like KillaWhat did is the way to go!

[LeftieBiker]

I would strongly recommend against soldering. The only thing that is going to properly heat a connector and heavy gauge wire up hot enough would be a blow torch. Crimping like KillaWhat did is the way to go!

If you have a huge crimper. I plan on 'crimping' with a ball peen hammer and maybe a punch, then soldering with a torch.

[GetOffYourGas]

I would strongly recommend against soldering. The only thing that is going to properly heat a connector and heavy gauge wire up hot enough would be a blow torch. Crimping like KillaWhat did is the way to go!

A solder pot works too, if you have access to one.

[LeftieBiker]

I would strongly recommend against soldering. The only thing that is going to properly heat a connector and heavy gauge wire up hot enough would be a blow torch. Crimping like KillaWhat did is the way to go!

A solder pot works too, if you have access to one.

That evokes images of plumbing in my mind, but I'm not sure. Elaborate, please?

[GetOffYourGas]

I would strongly recommend against soldering. The only thing that is going to properly heat a connector and heavy gauge wire up hot enough would be a blow torch. Crimping like KillaWhat did is the way to go!

A solder pot works too, if you have access to one.

That evokes images of plumbing in my mind, but I'm not sure. Elaborate, please?

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/2 ... OgodpHAAJg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's basically a pot full of liquid solder. You dip the wire into the pot to coat it with solder. It's much more effective than an iron for large surface areas. Maybe they use it for plumbing, but we also use them at work for soldering thick wires.

[LeftieBiker]

A solder pot works too, if you have access to one.

That evokes images of plumbing in my mind, but I'm not sure. Elaborate, please?

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/2 ... OgodpHAAJg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's basically a pot full of liquid solder. You dip the wire into the pot to coat it with solder. It's much more effective than an iron for large surface areas. Maybe they use it for plumbing, but we also use them at work for soldering thick wires.[/quote]


Thanks. I think it's used to join cast iron pipes as well. Since it would out-"gas" lead, I think I'll go with the torch and solder, after bash-crimping.

[johnrhansen]

I've worked in an aircraft wire shop. Some of the older connectors were soldered including some high power ones that had 6 gauge wire. Specifications were written on how to do it. One of the big things that was not allowed was to have the solder wick up the wire too much. The way I did it was to quickly tin the wire with very little solder, and then heat the solder cup of the connector and put just enough solder in so that when you insert the wire into the cup with molten solder, the solder just goes to the top and does not overflow. You need to use rosin flux, and not just rosin core solder. It makes the solder flow better especially when you are tinning the wire. Use a iron with a flattened tip and not a round tip. The heat transfers better. The less time you are doing the soldering the less the solder wicks up. Better heat transfer speeds it up. Another tool we used used a very low voltage high current to flow across the connector being soldered to heat it with resistance. You had to be careful to keep the tips clean so the current would flow enough to properly heat the joint.

I am glad those soldered connectors are going away. It's a real pain in the neck, I like the crimped connections much better. Still when the engineers decide to ude an older piece of equipment for the test, I end up soldering again. If you screw up one wire and have to cut it, often times you have to do the whole connector over, because the wire lengths are no longer the same. Sometime if you are lucky, you can reroute the wires in the bundle to make the shorter wire long enough again, or you just have to cut all the wires, re strip them all and start over.

[UBUYGAS]

If you're going to solder then make sure you use the best solder on the planet!

http://www.soniccraft.com/products/conn ... cardas.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the solder I use for all my electronic projects.

[LeftieBiker]

Not holding the cable in the hot solder until it's wicked way up is just common sense, but thanks for the tip anyway. The idea behind both home-crimping and soldering is you're using two methods that aren't 100% effective, and hoping they are better together than either is alone. That reminds me, though: I need to order than Anderson connector.

[RePo]

Back to the original topic, I finally took a picture of my "Leaf to Home"- 1500 watt power inverter permanently installed inside the car.
6 ga wire feed directly from the 12v battery. When left in "ready to drive", the built in inverter can supply up to 135 amps to the 12v system, which is more than the draw from this 120v inverter under full load.