AEC Matador gun tractor 1/16 scratch build

[jarndice]

Alwyn I havn't done this myself, but remember I mentioned CONDUCTIVE PAINT from Maplins? How about painting the area involved with the stuff and while it is drying put a drilled tag into it, let it dry and and solder onto that? shaun

[AlwynTurner]

Hi Shaun, yes I think it might come to that but my closest Maplins is in Stockport which is an hours drive away at this time of year, sooo, I have gone and bought some flux paste, and I'm going to give it another go. Let you know what happens.

[jarndice]

Maplins are available on line as well, indeed most of my shopping from maplins is on line. shaun

[AlwynTurner]

Hi All. well that was a lesson learned and no mistake! The copper coat on the pcb was very very thin, and I had overheated it and managed to remove the copper around the hole. So, I very carefully scraped back along the circuit to remove the insulating coating, and then applied flux and solder very gently. I then resoldered the wires, checked the connection to make sure it was working, and because it's very fragile I covered the connections in a large blob of general purpose glue to hold the wires so they don't move and break the pcb. Whew what a fiddly job. Answer is to treat these chinese pcbs with great respect. Next time the first job I do on one of these is fix the wiring, then start hacking.

[ALPHA]

Glad you sorted that out Alwyn...I did exactly what you did with some of the connectors on my Heng Longs...the secondary eight pin connector has a bad habit of those connection point "peeling off" ...but yeah ...what I do is what you just did.. heat the green insulating lacquer burning it back a little and solder to the "track" on the board...yes...it would be simpler to just buy a new one...but it isn't practical if you want things to run "yesterday"

Nice build by the way.... not to worry...I'm watching along

ALPHA

[AlwynTurner]

Hi, I had a further 'peel' incident with another wire. In the end I had to put the wire through the pcb to take the stress off the joint, then very carefully resolder to what was left of the copper on the pcb. One of the wires I had to anchor with a small screw. This pcb is nightmare. I am considering putting connections on the wires and encasing the whole thing in resin to stop any more peeling incidents or breakages.

[ALPHA]

Hi, I had a further 'peel' incident with another wire. In the end I had to put the wire through the pcb to take the stress off the joint, then very carefully resolder to what was left of the copper on the pcb. One of the wires I had to anchor with a small screw. This pcb is nightmare. I am considering putting connections on the wires and encasing the whole thing in resin to stop any more peeling incidents or breakages.

That sounds like a good idea Alwyn...that board seems really sensitive

ALPHA

[wibblywobbly]

If I thought the last build was good, then this was sees you promoted to 'excellent' lol.

Brilliant choice, love the Matador, it's probably the one vehicle that typifies the British Army. Can't wait to see more progress.

RobG

[AlwynTurner]

Well the dratted pcb has bitten back and the wire has come loose again taking still more copper layer with it. Shaun your conductive paint is going to have to be the solution and some is now on order so I'll have to do some other jobs until it arrives. I strengthened the chassis yesterday anyway, as the front end over the steering wasn't very solid and my plan to use 1.5mm styrene was a very poor material choice. so added 2mm styrene strips to the side and top and that's fixed it. In the meantime it's back to the LCM build.

[jarndice]

Alwyn Hi, really sorry about the PCB, a couple of things about the paint, 1/ If your partner has a fine mascara brush that is ideal. 2/ the glass phial in which it comes contains a warning but no instructions, KENO, the maker when I asked said to clean the brush with WHITE SPIRIT or TURPS, and that was it!!! shaun