WW2 Canadian Wireless Valve Testers

[David Dunlop]

This next sequence of photos shows the prepping of the adapter cable at the socket end of the system. I am not sure if there is an art, or science, to determining the most suitable length of conductor wires to work with or not. You have to just figure out a good length to work with that enables all socket terminals on the B9G to be reached easily, with enough room for soldering work, and at the other end of the spectrum, creating a rat’s nest! It doesn’t help that the actual cable end gets in the way and adds to the overall list of considerations.

The first two photos show the final length of free wires being determined and the cut point for the loom being marked off by a ring of masking tape. The winding of this tape is important to prevent the loom from fraying out of control before you are ready to deal with it.

Raiding Debbie’s sewing kit was a big help for this part of the work as she had a small set of very sharp, pointy nosed scissors that worked really well. I cut the loom back from the open end to the ring of tape and then snipped the loom away around the ring of tape. It is important not to tug on the loom too much as this will cause it to fray out from under the tape, despite your best intentions. Care should also be taken in this regard when unwrapping the tape.

The third photo shows the cable with the required amount of loom removed and you will notice a dark band on the first ¼-inch of loom. This is an application of clear nail polish to seal the end of the loom from any further unravelling. Nail polish is great for this as it dries very quickly.

Picture 4 shows the start of the binding process. I used a #10 Size Crochet Thread for this work. Pure cotton, and a 350 yard roll will only cost about $10.00 Cdn. I wanted about half an inch of binding, from the open end of the loom back up the cable. As shown, you start at the back end by tying a snug loop around the cable and knotting it on top where you can see it. The free end of the thread is laid out towards the end of the cable. Your first row of binding is going to cover this loose thread end up. You take your working end of the thread and start your first wrap of binding from the knot in your initial loop, the first pass going directly behind your initial loop. It is important here to keep a good tension on the thread as you are winding around the loom and keep each pass of thread directly up against the last one. Once you have made the first pass directly behind the initial loop and are back at the knot, cross over the knot and continue the winding process towards the open end of the loom. When you are about half way down the free end of the thread from tying the initial loop, you can trim off the excess of that free end and continue on towards the end of the loom. Once you reach the end of the loom, I usually just go far enough to cover the last fuzzy bit. At this point you then start winding a second row of binding, back towards your start point. When you are back at your start point, you return with a third and final layer of binding, back to the front of the loom. When you reach the front of the loom on the final layer, trim the binding thread to leave about ¼-inch of an open end. Then, while holding the binding with the thumb and finger of one hand, use a small, jeweller’s size slotted screw driver to tuck the loose binding thread end in under the front of the binding you have just completed. You can see this in the final photo, which also shows the last very important step. As soon as you have finished the binding, it will need a couple of coats varnish, or even better urethane clear coat. I prefer the urethane as it is a water based product and the binding thread is cotton. The cotton will get nice and wet and shrink even more snugly onto the cable as it cures. And that little loose end you tucked away will never come loose again.


David

[Bob Carriere]

.... I believe that Northern Electric is looking for guys like you......

Fantastic.

[Bruce MacMillan]

excellent workmanship David. Project coming along quite well.

I first learned how to lace back in the early 1970s working for BC Tel. This was pre nylon cable ties. Working on the main frames cables had to be dressed neatly, proper bends and all hand stitched with lacing twine.

If anyone here had visited Expo 86 in Vancouver in 1986 and visited the Russian building they would have seen more of this. They had a Soyuz capsule on display and cables were terminated with the same technique David is using.

[David Dunlop]

Thanks for the kind complements, Gentlemen. Much appreciated.

The last time I did any binding, or lacing, was some 30 years back on a 19-Set project. The binding work was for a Crystal Calibrator Dog Bone that somebody had cut the binding from where the calibrator supply line comes out of the one end socket. I could find no reason for the binding having been cut away, other than perhaps pure curiosity, so had the fun of restoring it.

I cannot recall why I got involved with lacing. I recall it was a short run of wiring, that again, had been snipped at for no clear reason. Not even sure if it was a 19-Set chassis, or something else at this point, but lacing was fun to sort out. I discovered very quickly, there is a right way of doing it, and a wrong way which looks all too similar to the correct way, but you discover too late its is indeed wrong and you have to replace it. And just to add to that wrinkle, there is actually a third, really good way, of lacing up a run of wires. I have a reference on the topic somewhere. I should probably dig it up and post one day, before circuit boards and AI completely take over.


David

[David Dunlop]

These three photos show the final stages of the socket wiring for the adapter. With this stage of the project finally completed, there was no further need for the socket reference tags on the underside of the cover, so off they came.

An interesting realization came about while working on the wiring. The start point at the B9G socket was going to be the most challenging to solder. It was the closest point to the cable assembly, which sooner, or later, was going to be a challenge to work around, for getting wires into terminal holes and staying there, while also manouvering a soldering iron and the solder. I had decided to simply start with Pin 1 and work my way in sequence to Pin 9 and all should be OK. That worked for the first two pins before two things came to light. The first was the anticipated issue of the cable itself getting in the way. The second was my mindset.

The adapter I was modeling mine after was the Stark design that Bruce MacMillan is lucky enough to have in his collection. I had been following the wiring runs in the Stark so closely for the first two pin runs I lost sight of the fact this original Stark was a much narrower design than the case I was working with. I was using very short runs of wire between the sockets, which were adding to the problems of the loose ends staying put before soldering them in place and ease of access for the soldering iron. At that point, the valve lit and I became a bit more generous with the wiring runs. You can see that transition in the first two photos.

The third photo was taken after the cable assembly was finally positioned and all the continuity checks, within and between the four sockets, checked out absolutely correctly (several times). This last photo turned up an interesting point.

If you look at the reflection of the camera flash around the cover screw in the lower left corner, you can see a ‘cone of depression’ around the screw. When I spotted this and looked more closely at the reflections around all six cover screws, four in total showed this cone around them: a result of the screws being over tightened. I backed them off just until the cones disappeared and then checked the seam between the cover and case and it was all still snug, but at least the excess stress on the plastic cover was now gone.

The next step will be prepping the cable end to which the Octal Plug will be fitted.

David

[David Dunlop]

I have not got as far along as I had hoped with this work lately. I have been playing tag with a kidney stone again for the last couple of weeks, Grrr!

As noted in the attached two photographs, however, I have been able to trim the cable to the required length, bind it at the appropriate spot at the Octal Plug end and install the Octal Plug Cover on the cable (oriented correctly).

This morning, I was able to trim the 8 conductors in the cable back enough they will extend about one quarter inch beyond the ends of the plug pins when fully seated for soldering in place. I have also been able to arrange the conductors in the correct circular sequence to line up with their corresponding pins on the Octal Plug.

Next step will be to tin the exposed copper stranding, and bend them all to line up with the plug pins. Then the actual soldering of the connectors to the Octal Plug can begin.

David

[David Dunlop]

Clearly I have not had to do a lot of tinning for quite a while. I could not find my small tin of rosin flux anywhere and ended up making a quick run yesterday morning to a local electronics shop to purchase a fresh tin of flux.

With that on the workbench this afternoon, I have now completed the tinning of the eight leads to the Octal Plug. While checking the plug itself for any issues, I finally noticed that whoever the manufacturer of this particular plug was, they took the time to cast in the pin numbers on both the top and bottom of the plug base. Nice touch, as not all manufacturers seem to do that.

I did notice one other thing, which made the close inspection worthwhile. There was a noticeable variation in the size of the openings on the tips of the pins. Not a huge variation, but just enough that only 5 of the eight leads would slide easily through the openings. I took a small steel scratch all from the tool bin and gently inserted it into each hole to match them all to the largest sized opening visible. It was a bit of a challenge getting all eight leads into their allotted pins at roughly the same time. Seven of the eight seated quite easily and as each went into place, I used a pair of small needle nose pliers to gently bend the leads a few degrees to the side of the pin tips to hold each in place until they can be soldered home. The yellow lead, which had the greatest distance to travel from the end of the cable loom to its final resting place, took a little nudging to get it far enough out of its pin end to grab with the pliers, fully seat and get its holding bend applied.

Next step will be the final soldering of the eight leads to the Octal Plug pins and then I will use a small stone on my Dremel to clear away the excess leads. But not before I quadruple check continuity between the Octal Plug pins and the sockets. I’ve made enough of those hasty mistakes over time, I don’t have any desire to purchase another T-shirt!

David