Trouble soldering pancake jacks

samveness

I've recently got some Hicon pancake jacks and Vandamme cable to solder some new year patch cables for my board.

I'm not the best at the soldering but I'd thought it a go. 

No luck so far can anyone point at where I've gone wrong? 

For some reason I can only upload 1
image at the minute 

samveness

joeyowen

The black shielding of the core needs stripping back

joeyowen

see this image (although he has a very hot iron which has melted bits)

hotpickups

I feel your pain. I've attempted soldering these mothers up before and the above image is many times cleaner than my attempt. Pools of solder  etc

One tip though scratch away the chrome when you attempt to solder to inside of the outer cover

mrkb

joeyowen said:

The black shielding of the core needs stripping back

Agreed - I had the same problem with those same cables and jacks. The black shielding is conductive and needs to be cut back away from the tip connection.

english_bob

Unless I'm very much mistaken the ones in your pics are stereo / TRS cables @samveness. The bare shielding wire needs to be soldered to the casing of the jack, not to the solder tag. 

You also need to make sure that you're soldering the central wire to the right solder tag- one is the tip, the other is the ring.


FYI: soldering the shielding wire to the jack casing is a pig of a job with a small iron. You need to make sure it's good and hot, which may well mean that you can't hold it. If you have some sort of a clamp, use it. If not, you might need to engineer one. I use a pair of needle nosed pliers with an elastic band around the handles so that they grip whatever you put in the middle.

sweepy

I use the Dremel to remove the "finish" on the solder points, it's a ball ache, but it does work

Sassafras

You can use TRS plugs but you have to solder the braid to the casing. Scratch up the casing with a knife or screwdriver and tin the wires first.

jonnygreentrees

I've made loads of leads using the Hicon pancake jacks. Will try and upload a photo later 

samveness

jonnygreentrees said:

I've made loads of leads using the Hicon pancake jacks. Will try and upload a photo later 

That'd be great! Im gonna try soldering to the casing.

thanks for the help guys! 

jonnygreentrees

samveness said:

jonnygreentrees said:

I've made loads of leads using the Hicon pancake jacks. Will try and upload a photo later 

That'd be great! Im gonna try soldering to the casing.

thanks for the help guys! 

to be honest mine don't look particularly neat but they all work and none have broken yet!

noisepolluter

I have a vintage-style fender amp footswitch with a stereo one of those. I did a bodge solder a few months ago and now it's gone again. I'm tempted to replace it with a neutrik one, as it's a pain to re-do.

ecc83

+1 to getting the chrome plating off the body but then get a good blob of solder, well flowed on same BEFORE you get cable anywhere near the plug. When cooled enough to handle you should be able to dob in the shield and centre wire with minimal heat. Yes, you need a 50W iron.

If you really can't make a good job of the shield you can strip it back and fold it over the outer cover and trap it in the assembly, but! Run some heat shrink over the plug case and screws to make a really solid job and prevent those pesky screws coming loose. In fact, the smart use of H shrink is good for all sorts of cable assemblies.

Do not use TRS plugs for guitar kit. You will one day lose hair and swear badly because SOMETHING doesn't work, many pedals need a solid sleeve to power up. A linked shield and ring MIGHT work but don't bet on it!

57Deluxe

you not using Gluten-free solder are you

https://b.zmtcdn.com/data/menus/867/16827867/3549217620b8c3429175b12dbbed8388.jpg

Johnnyseven

I was wiring some of these Hicon pancake jacks today and for reference as to how they should be wired I looked at one of my Kabl patch leads. The Kabl lead is wired the other way round to what was recommended here, the inner core goes to the tab on the bottom right and the shielding to the top left. I wired mine like the Kabl and it works so i'm a bit confused - have I wired it correctly?

ICBM

The orientation of the tabs can vary. The important thing is that the core goes to the one that's attached to the centre rivet.

If you have it the wrong way round at both ends, the cable will work but won't be shielded.

Johnnyseven

What would the result be of the cable not being shielded?

Danny1969

You need to solder the earth wire to both the ring  and the casing ....otherwise some pedals won't work 

Danny1969

So hot to centre core of the jack which is the tip and earth to ring and casing then it will act as a mono jack 

ICBM

Johnnyseven said:

What would the result be of the cable not being shielded?

It will pick up noise. You might not notice over a short length.