Power supply connector pin crimping, and 8-inch FDD power connectors (another chapter in the Quay 900 saga)

[drlegendre .]

Eric & All,

On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 10:16 PM, Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> wrote:

> Last week (...)

After a lot of pulling of hair, gnashing of teeth, and sacrificing a
> chicken at midnight, I discovered that +5V pin in the connector that
> plugs onto the switching power supply was not crimped properly. It was
> partially crimped, but the wire was just loose.


 Funny how that happens. Not sure if you recall, but I found the same issue
in the Altair 8800 that I restored some months back.

In that case, it was on the 120AC primary side.. connector was crimped,
everything appeared just fine, but the system was unstable.. had to go all
the way back to the AC 'molex' to find the EVIL within.

Stripping a fresh 1/8" section, filing / scraping out the char inside the
old connector pin, resoldering, and all was well. That stuff can hide, so
deep..