Strengthening Piezo Array

[kjacobs]

I'm not sure if anyone has considered this before, but when building the piezo array for my DR280's, I wanted to make sure the array was as rigid as possible as I was concerned about the array breaking while handling. So after cutting and gluing the piezos together, I ran a 1/4" dowel down each side of the array and hot glued the dowel to each piezo horn. The array ended up incredibly strong and really added very little weight to the array. It also gave me a place to hot glue the resistor and attach the feed wire with cable ties.

[Harley]

What a jolly good idea!

H

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Good idea, though as you've found out the heavy wire takes too much heat to solder and that will damage tweeters. Use 18 to 24 gauge wire.

[kjacobs]

This is the revised version with 18 guage wire.....18 guage is MUCH easier and faster to solder. Will never go through that again......

[UNDERTONE]

has anyone tried using 'disconnects' to wire piezos together? i planned on trying it but the 1/4 inch ones i bought are actually too big.

for now i'll try soldering with the lighter gauge as recommended but it would be nice to find a crimping alternative...

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

has anyone tried using 'disconnects' to wire piezos together? i planned on trying it but the 1/4 inch ones i bought are actually too big.

for now i'll try soldering with the lighter gauge as recommended but it would be nice to find a crimping alternative...

I don't care for crimping myself. Of course, you could solder the wire to the connector. Seriously, anything that can come loose will.

[DaveK]

has anyone tried using 'disconnects' to wire piezos together? i planned on trying it but the 1/4 inch ones i bought are actually too big.

I use disconnects exclusively. Each piezo bank has a pre-built wiring harness with daisy-chained disconnects for each lug. I also use 'em on the main driver and the Speakon connector.

No problems so far, but my gear is not road-tested like some here.

[Mikey]

anything that can come loose will

+1

I never use screw-ons or lugs. Nothing beats a good solder joint for reliability. I always make sure that every soldered joint is as perfect as I can get it. If it doesn't look quite right, I re-do it. Solid, clean connections are very important to me because reliability is everything come show time.

[bjhueni]

Good idea, though as you've found out the heavy wire takes too much heat to solder and that will damage tweeters. Use 18 to 24 gauge wire.

I discovered that wiring up the Dual Speakons and 1/4 connectors on my Titan panels. Even when trimming out some of the strands they are still too big. Luckily the Speakons are screw in and the 1/4s can take alot of heat. I figure if the speakons get loose it's pretty easy to pull the panel and tighten them. If it happens alot I can swap out the screw ons for the solder ons and hope I don't melt them making the connection

[bgavin]

I use a Hakko 936 solder station, and it works great for soldering temp-sensitive material. I use this to recap motherboards. It is temperature controlled, and gets hot in a helluva hurry. Just the ticket for quick solder jobs.

If you have a hemostat (roach clip) use it between the work and the sensitive part as a heat sink. A quality soldering iron will still make a good joint, and the roach clip will keep the delicate part from over heating. These were standard issue in IBM toolbags in the 70's.

[LelandCrooks]

If you have a hemostat (roach clip) use it between the work and the sensitive part as a heat sink.

I tried it with my bong, and it just didn't work.


Oh, that must have been a flashback to the

70's.