Securing Or Staking ECO Jumpers

All y'all, We use two methods to secure/stake jumper wires to boards: 1 Jumper wires that "magically" bond themselves when heated with a "U" shaped tip on a soldering iron. 2 Loctite 382 Tak Pak We use Tak Pak "99&44/100ths" more often than the "magic wire" method. Tak Pak is a "super glue." It sets-up fast and if you're careful, does not leave glue pattern finger prints with skin attached on the board surface. It is a cyanocrylate, which is latin or something or other for "glue that cures by absorbing humidity in the air." If we stake wires after washing, life is good. If we stake wires before plan DI water washing, the glue turns cloudy white ... kinda ugly ... after washing. How do you stake jumper wires? TTYL Dave F

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| All y'all, | We use two methods to secure/stake jumper wires to boards: | 1 Jumper wires that "magically" bond themselves when heated with a "U" shaped tip on a soldering iron. | 2 Loctite 382 Tak Pak | We use Tak Pak "99&44/100ths" more often than the "magic wire" method. Tak Pak is a "super glue." It sets-up fast and if you're careful, does not leave glue pattern finger prints with skin attached on the board surface. It is a cyanocrylate, which is latin or something or other for "glue that cures by absorbing humidity in the air." | If we stake wires after washing, life is good. If we stake wires before plan DI water washing, the glue turns cloudy white ... kinda ugly ... after washing. | How do you stake jumper wires? | TTYL | Dave F Dave - I don't stake jumper wires anymore. We buy in bulk to save money (!!!!!). So when an ECN hits us, we've got at least 1000 boards in stock and another 9000 in process where it's too late to change. No way I'm wasting labor on 10000 boards. So I send them up to ASI in New Hampshire and let them cut and add the traces automatically at the bare board levels. Now when the fab comes in, the ECN's already taken care of. And they're done right, too! Okay, once in a while we add wires, we use sticky dots.

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Boy Chrys, aren't you lucky? Too busy to mess with that stuff huh?...must be nice!! Ya' know, it doesn't say much for the design, or the design-er when you see a bunch of wires on board, but if the person who does the jumper wires is good, and takes pride in their workmanship, I kinda' think a board with a bunch of wires looks neat (in my own warped way). Maybe it's only because I know the skill it takes to do a clean jumper wire job and I appreciate that kind of skill. Back about 5-6 years ago when I was working for Comptronix, we were building almost all the boards for a brand new computer system being made by Unisys, it was to be one their first voice recognition computers. Well, the first time outta the chute for the motherboard didn' go quite as well as the engineering team at Unisys had hoped...I mean we built it okay and put everything where the BOM said to put it, but the thing just wouldn't fire up when we gave it to them. So they played around with it for about a week and then came back and said they wanted 15 more built, but we needed to incorporate some rework into it. I should say so! They gave us a PACKAGE of documentation for the rework we needed to do! I'm used to getting one sheet of paper that says; "Don't load c2. Cut the trace between the via and pin 12 of U10. Install jumper between pin 12 of U10 and pin 10 of U12...something along those lines, not a WHOLE FRIGGEN BOOK! We had to cut 37 traces, lift 2 pins on each of the 4 QFP's on the board, glue 4 PALS upside down, and install 115 jumper wires!!! I kid you not!! We charged them close to $2,000 for each one of the boards! It was a lot of work...it took our best rework people 2-solid days, 8-hours a day, to do all the rework on just one motherboard! MAN! I guess it was more cost effective for them to pay us to do the rework than it was just to spin the fab... Oh, the question....wires, staking, material, the use of...we mostly use tak-pak now, I've used hot melt glue in the past...that stuff looks prettier than tak pak when it's done right...I think it does anyway. -Steve Gregory-

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| | All y'all, | | We use two methods to secure/stake jumper wires to boards: | | 1 Jumper wires that "magically" bond themselves when heated with a "U" shaped tip on a soldering iron. | | 2 Loctite 382 Tak Pak | | We use Tak Pak "99&44/100ths" more often than the "magic wire" method. Tak Pak is a "super glue." It sets-up fast and if you're careful, does not leave glue pattern finger prints with skin attached on the board surface. It is a cyanocrylate, which is latin or something or other for "glue that cures by absorbing humidity in the air." | | If we stake wires after washing, life is good. If we stake wires before plan DI water washing, the glue turns cloudy white ... kinda ugly ... after washing. | | How do you stake jumper wires? | | TTYL | | Dave F | Dave - | I don't stake jumper wires anymore. We buy in bulk to save money (!!!!!). So when an ECN hits us, we've got at least 1000 boards in stock and another 9000 in process where it's too late to change. No way I'm wasting labor on 10000 boards. So I send them up to ASI in New Hampshire and let them cut and add the traces automatically at the bare board levels. Now when the fab comes in, the ECN's already taken care of. And they're done right, too! | Okay, once in a while we add wires, we use sticky dots. Super glue for everything - alright! You all know the stuff hates epoxy and most other resin systems. It eats it up, but I know you only use tiny dots that can't harm anything. Earl Moon

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