Difficulty inserting multi-strand wire into holes in HTIB

Thank you all for your suggestions and insights. I bought the
following terminal strip.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

I don't do much electrical / electronics work so I don't have the
necessary tools such as soldering iron and crimping tool. (Obviously,
I don't want to buy them as there is no future need.)

I will try to put everything together tonight or over the few days
(want to involve our 9-year old). I will feedback only if I encounter
some hurdles. Otherwise, you may assume things went well.

Thanks again for your time.

Thank you all for your suggestions and insights. I bought the
following terminal strip.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

I don't do much electrical / electronics work so I don't have the
necessary tools such as soldering iron and crimping tool. (Obviously,
I don't want to buy them as there is no future need.)

I will try to put everything together tonight or over the few days
(want to involve our 9-year old). I will feedback only if I encounter
some hurdles. Otherwise, you may assume things went well.

Thanks again for your time.

wrote in message
...
Thank you all for your suggestions and insights. I bought the
following terminal strip.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

Yep, that's the stuff I recommended


I don't do much electrical / electronics work so I don't have the
necessary tools such as soldering iron and crimping tool. (Obviously,
I don't want to buy them as there is no future need.)

Just a screwdriver and a pair of small sharp cutters for stripping the wire,
is all you should need,


I will try to put everything together tonight or over the few days
(want to involve our 9-year old). I will feedback only if I encounter
some hurdles. Otherwise, you may assume things went well.

Just remember to preserve the polarities of the wires to continue to get
crisp well defined stereo / surround images from your speakers.

Arfa


Thanks again for your time.

"Baron" wrote in message
...
wrote:

My house is pre-wired for 5.1 surround sound with what seems to be
good quality multi-strand wires.

My "home theater in a box" receives these wires at the back of the
sub- woofer into small holes with some clip-like plastic things. (I am
sure you have seen them on most of the audio equipment especially
where AM/ FM antennae wires go into.)

Last time when I put everything together it took me hours to put these
wires into those holes because they just don't go in well. I had to
dismantle everything last week as we were getting some work done on
the house. Now, I am struggling to reconnect everything. Just when I
think I did put the wires in and flip the clip, they come out with a
mild pull. And there is this annoying fibre (probably from the
sheathing) that comes in the way. Cutting the wires is not an option
as there isn't much length of wire left.

What do you all do in this situation? (I couldn't find much on the
Internet - probably I am not using the correct key words.)


I just twist the wires well and tin them with solder, the wires may be too
large for that to work for you though.

a

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:39:39 +0000, Baron
wrote:

:Ross Herbert wrote:
:
: What you probably need are wire-end or bootlace ferrules
: http://www.specialtycontrol.com/Prod...ules/index.cfm
:
:Those are the things that I mentioned.... Just couldn't remember the
:name for then.

Strangely, it was difficult to find mention of these items on US websites so I
am wondering whether they are all that common there. In Europe, Australia and
other Commonwealth countries the usual name given to them is "bootlace ferrules"
and most people know of them and where to obtain them.

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:49:17 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Thank you all for your suggestions and insights. I bought the
following terminal strip.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

I don't do much electrical / electronics work so I don't have the
necessary tools such as soldering iron and crimping tool. (Obviously,
I don't want to buy them as there is no future need.)

I will try to put everything together tonight or over the few days
(want to involve our 9-year old). I will feedback only if I encounter
some hurdles. Otherwise, you may assume things went well.

Thanks again for your time.

A pliers or vise grip pliers will do an adequate job of crimping. A
set of small needle nose, round nose, and diagonal cutters will set
you back all of about $5 at Walmart in the crafts section.

The space where the handles come together, close to the cutting head,
on ordinary diagonal cutters will also work depending on size of
cutter and terminal.

It ain't rocket science to figure out a way to crimp wire terminals. I
wouldn't be a bit surprised that it could be done with a pair of
rocks.

It only takes a single strand of wire bridging the output to fry some
amps. If you do add wire a good technique is to stagger the joints -
one long one short - makes the splice smaller and lowers the chance of
a short.
--

I don't do much electrical / electronics work so I don't have the
necessary tools such as soldering iron and crimping tool. (Obviously,
I don't want to buy them as there is no future need.)



It never hurts to have a few tools around. A cheap soldering iron and a
small roll of solder will cost maybe 10-15 bucks, if it really takes you
hours to get all the wires back in, I would think the investment would pay
off several times over even if you only use it once.

If the system uses spring clips I doubt you would notice any difference in
sound quality if you just extended the wires. I would do it by soldering a
new length on and using a heat shrink sleeve to cover the joint.

The alternative would be to fit speaker sockets on the wall.