Has anyone else noticed that their AA lights are suffering from resistance in the switch/tail spring—Almost all of my AA lights benefited from copper braid added to the spring
It’s amazing how many places you will find resistance. Springs in particular are known for it. The difference between a fully compressed spring and a spring that is just compressed a little is also a well known factor. I know that I do spring mods on just about everything but now looking at some of my older mods I’m beginning to question using the standard copper braid. It’s looking pretty green on more than one of them. I have started using coated copper wire now, hopefully that will hold up better over time.
When I fooled with high end audio that green on the outside meant nothing —As long as it was clean when soldered the signal can pass through the inside-In the audio world that prevents signal jumping between the strands
Well that’s good to know. I’ll keep that in mind.
Obviously you had no issues with signals down the cables
But once you put current down a cable that’s gone green, that’s a different matter
Can add a huge amount of resistance, especially if it’s tracked back down the copper strands inside the sheathing
I stopped braiding springs about a month ago, to many of them break the braid after enough compression cycles, now I use a single strand of silicone wire (22-18 depending on size of spring and current requirements). I strip the wire in the middle, wrap both ends into the spring, solder the stripped middle part the the batt end of the spring and solder each of the long end’s to the PCB. I use as little flux and make the solder connection as fast as possible so its a strong joint but no excess solder wicks up the wire making it less bendy.