Wire breakage at solder joints

[cbear]

Noob question about wiring. Both solder joints (hot and neutral) on the Bussard motors on my PL lighting set have about 2-3 mm of bare wire between the solder joints and the insulation. They seem to want to flex at exactly that point and I'm afraid they'll break. (I already had to get replacement motors from PL for exactly that problem).
How can I prevent this from happening?

Chuck G

[Ant]

Ideally they would have some sort of sleeving (flexible or heat-shrink) on them when assembled to prevent exactly this issue. I don't know of the parts you are talking about, but you may be able to use a blob of hot glue over the joint to relieve the strain.

[EVApodman]

This is a common problem that affects electronics everywhere, wires flexing and breaking from vibration.

I made my own lighting for my K'tinga battle ship and I made sure of two things.

One was that I had a good, solid solder connection. The other was that I had strain relief on all the wires. I put shrink wrap around all the connections and epoxied wires together to eliminate excessive movement and vibration. I knew once sealed all repairs were impossible so I checked and double checked everything before sealing sealing up the model.

My advice is that if you have doubts about your solder connections is to re-flow them with a good electronic grade solder and then put some epoxy over them to prevent any movement. If you have doubts about doing this find someone experienced in soldering to perform a good job.

Another thing is to check the epoxy to make sure it is styrene plastic safe.

[cbear]

Hello again!
Still plagued by wire breakage with my PL TOS lighting set. Thinking about salvaging the PCBs and lights and replacing the wiring harness with a heavier gauge wire. Any ideas from the hive mind?

[cbear]

Hello again!
Still plagued by wire breakage with my PL TOS lighting set. Thinking about salvaging the PCBs and lights and replacing the wiring harness with a heavier gauge wire. Any ideas from the hive mind?

[EVApodman]

What size are the wires? Are they super fine 60 gauge, if so then replacing them may be difficult. For most modeling applications I would recommend 28 to 30 gauge.

If you are serious about this then unsolder the wires, trim them back and resolder them. Otherwise secure them with epoxy to prevent breakage.