Battery Power - All Electronics 2-Pin Plug Set Wiring Fix |
by Paul Norton
Thanks to Stan Cedarleaf who alerted us to the fact that the wires on All Electronics, two-pin plug sets are not colour coded the same as the wires on Aristo-Craft or USA Trains plug sets.
As many devices, such as 27 MHz receivers, lithium-ion battery packs and chargers are polarity sensitive; you should be careful to ensure polarity is maintained when using the All Electronics plug sets in projects.
METHOD 1
The wires on these plug sets can be changed over to colour match the Aristo-Craft and USA Trains ones by following these steps.
For the male connector, insert a thin pin above the metal terminal and push down on the inserted end of the pin. This depresses a small tab on the back of the terminal and allows it to be withdrawn by gently pulling on the wire.
NOTE: If the end of the pin is blunted by cutting it or reversing it in the pin head, it is easier to flatten the tab.
For the female connector, depress the small tab on the back of the metal terminal with a pin and gently push on the of front of the terminal with a small screwdriver. After the terminal has moved, it can be withdrawn by gently pulling on the wire.
NOTE: People have reported having problems extracting the terminals from the connectors. The job is much easier if you use a small bench top vise to hold the connector. The one shown below is from Micro-Mark under tool number 60282
This allows the use of both hands, which is needed to extract the terminals from the female connector.
METHOD 2
This is an alternate method that does not require changing the wires over. Cover the connectors on the plug set with masking tape, and spray the red wires with Krylon Semi-Flat Black.
This method eliminates the obvious red wires, but a multimeter is needed to ensure that proper polarity is maintained.
Comments:
From Thom Filbert [64.30.96.252] - 7/11/09 7:11 PM
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Last Modified 4/3/09 4:03 PM