flexwatt connection ideas

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Originally Posted by PythonWallace

That's how I wire my racks. I use crimpable male copper tabs from RadioShack, crimp the cord to them in parallel, then slide the tabs right into the Flexwatt. The tabs are beveled like a paint scraper so they slide right between the plastic and the metal strip easily. A little solder and a piece of electrical tape and they're done. I finished my 8 shelf rack this way in about 2 hours, from start to heating.

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those wire ends seem like a really good idea.......I woulnd't have thought of using those like that.

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Originally Posted by thehoofbite

those wire ends seem like a really good idea.......I woulnd't have thought of using those like that.

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They work great. At the time, I was tinkering with a bunch of different connectors for different modifications for my R/C planes, so these came to mind as soon as I started having problems with wiring my first rack.

PythonWallace-your idea sounds good, but I dont get it. What Im doing is I take an old strip of heat cable. I cut the plastic off the ends exposing the copper wire. Then I use the solder to melt the plastic over the heat tape, and attach the wire to the metal strip in the heat tape. It doesnt really work. :confused:

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Originally Posted by Petboy15

PythonWallace-your idea sounds good, but I dont get it. What Im doing is I take an old strip of heat cable. I cut the plastic off the ends exposing the copper wire. Then I use the solder to melt the plastic over the heat tape, and attach the wire to the metal strip in the heat tape. It doesnt really work. :confused:

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I cut 6" extention cords down into 10" or 12" pieces, then strip the ends to expose the wire. Then I match 2 up and twist the wires from the two together and put both into a male tab connector. I crimp it tight and repeat with the second pair of wires. I do this until I have one set of tabbed connections per shelf, with the top shelf being a single wire in the tabs. The bottom shelf has a single plus the end that plugs into the thermostat. These tabs can then be slid under the plastic and against the metal strips in the flexwatt and soldered and taped to secure them. The connectors I use clamp to the cord with a crimping tool or plyers, but they make some that have heat shrink tubing, so you don't have to crimp them.

Here is a sketch. The bottom pair of wires should have a plug at the end. I colored the halves of the cord red and black to illustrate which connections get wired in parallel. Notice the top shelf only has one wire per tab. All of them have two tabs per piece of flex watt.

http://www.inkednation.com/images/us...7170163143.jpg

Figured out where I got mixed up. What is a

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put both into a male tab connector.

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Whats that? The male tab connector? Everything else I get.

You can get them at RadioShack. They come in packs w/ male and female connectors that you attach to wires, than the connectors plug into each other to complete a circuit.

Thanks, Ill try to get some soon. Then you can just crimp them like the flexwatt clips?