Spade terminals

Blame it on Google and Facebook and its AI constantly monitoring me but suddenly, a little bit of history suddenly crop up into my feed.

Why do electrical plugs have holes in them? The original design some hundred years back has a spring detent in the socket to grip the plug and prevent it from falling off. With modern design, the detent is no longer there but the holes have stayed. Perhaps to put a padlock in it to prevent use?

And with the history, the thoughts came flashing into my mind. In my early days of electronics, before the clip on terminals, screw terminals, molex method became popular, the male terminal lugs have holes in them. That's where I slip my wire to solder as philsweet have mentioned. Now I don't know which came first but I learned to solder first.

Now most modern electrical appliances comes with a harness, holed spade, and dimpled socket/connectors. When it snaps/clicks into place, it is very difficult to pull out first time out after assembly. You have to use a flat screwdriver to coax it out.

For FG dilemma, the fix is simple. Just reverse the insertion so that the face is not dimple to dimple but dimple of female terminal to underneath the dimple of spade. If there is no positive click, there is another tab at the crimp side of the female terminal. It will stop it from being pushed too much.
 
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Thanks to the contribution of forum members, I have learned that my switches have a female side housing. The connections are a bit female spade specific, but I ordered 40 of them yesterday.

Here is the Contura female side housing.

VC1-01 Carling V Series Rocker Switch Black Connector Housing, 10 terminal base https://spemco.com/vc1-01-carling-v-series-rocker-switch-black-connector-housing-10-terminal-base/

Here is an accepted female side. Not sure if these 'mate' with the contura v series spades.

https://www.alliedelec.com/product/te-connectivity/60253-2/70082850/

I'll update a picture of the revisions in due course.

It should be noted, these are not heat shrinkers. The install location is dry, but I will probably use liquid electrical tape to make it so the wires don't wiggle at the connector. We'll see.

I have three other analog switches on the helm for two remote batteries and an acr, all bluesea and I am going to review that work as well.
 
Good choice to use the proper assembly to connect to the back of the switch. Smear a little dielectric grease over the face of the assembled connector before pushing it on, this will help reduce corrosion at the interference fit between the spades.
 
I spoke with Bluesea and all their remote battery switches are Carling V series 8 pin. I may or may not change them all as well.
 
I can't take issue with any of the remedies suggested. What strikes me is that in 43 years of boat ownership, everything from open runabouts to a small cruiser, I've never had a failure at the switch connection. I've had a couple of carling switches fail internally. If memory serves they were the spring loaded type (momentary on-off) used for adjusting sterndrive trim.
I suppose if it makes you feel better it's not a bad idea anyway. I have back up bilge pumps and two engine room exhaust fans installed and people have often commented on why. So I do these things too, just in a different area.
I'd just hate to see someone new to boating read through all this and be frightened that his panel was going to fall apart.
 
You'll have to trust me. I used piggybacks in about 6-8 places and they are s..t.

Not making it up.

@philSweet backed up my concerns

It isn't better mousetrap stuff. It is just comparing czone digital to my own work and feeling a bit sick about how poor it was after doing hours more work..

I will update the group with my changes; maybe next week.
 
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Turns out I am not crazy.

I got the right female side and spades for the job and not done the work, yet, but check these out. The spade has a locking feature. Once it is in the female housing; it requires a thin piece of metal to unlock.

And the female housing clips to the switch!
 
fallguy said:
Turns out I am not crazy.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the crazy world of "terminal connectors". You just had a baptism of fire.

That tab at the back of the connector is a detent. It springs back and locks into the housing/cage and is impossible to pull out once inserted. Well, sort of. To remove if want to change, use a flat jewelers screwdriver to push the detent back and slip out the terminal end. Terminals comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some spade, round, even square at around 1 mm. To remove/ de pin, they use a de pinning tool available in several different sizes. Cheap.
 
rxcomposite said:
Welcome to the crazy world of "terminal connectors". You just had a baptism of fire.

That tab at the back of the connector is a detent. It springs back and locks into the housing/cage and is impossible to pull out once inserted. Well, sort of. To remove if want to change, use a flat jewelers screwdriver to push the detent back and slip out the terminal end. Terminals comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some spade, round, even square at around 1 mm. To remove/ de pin, they use a de pinning tool available in several different sizes. Cheap.
Click to expand...
I spent about $45 for 4-10 spot females and 4-8 spot females and 40 female
Spades...
 
So, working more on these I had another revelation to share. I have some bluesea devices, two battery monitors and a usb charging port, all the same config.

The heat shrink tubing is keeping the dimple away from the hole!

So, in order to get things to mesh well and meet the 6# pull test; you have to cut the heat shrink off the end of the connector.

Here, I cut the sides of the tube for show and tell only. But if you leave the heat shrink ends; the dimples won't make the female hole.

Here you can see the dimple does not mesh. The hole is too far away and the connector is 'bottomed' to the heat shrink.
D223B827-34FC-448B-B89D-54296C294EF0.jpeg
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Here, with the heat shrink razor bladed away from the end, the dimple makes it to home. Funny the Chinese are using more heat tube than allows the connector to work.
8E965B4B-5AD7-4F2D-A57C-1A16A139479A.jpeg
 
Another picture of the issue highlighted with a before and after blading.

image.jpg
 
Electric Driers, or similar maybe, have had special female spade connectors that use a postive lock on design. To remove you must squeeze them. A part of spade connector has a spring locker that fits into those little holes. Push connector on, it snaps into the hole and you CAN NOT pull it off again unless you squeeze it to release the lock spring.

Dont even know their exact name. I have salvaged some from old clothes driers, washers, other big household appliances. There are good for appliances that vibrate.

I used 2 of those to connect to a clothes drier thermal temp switch to measure outlet exhaust water temp , as in if cooling water flow stops on generator, it will interrupt the ignition power and turn off the engine.
 
160826-3 | TE Connectivity Positive Lock .250 Mk I Uninsulated Female Spade Connector, Receptacle, 6.35 x 0.8mm Tab Size, 0.3mm² | RS (rs-online.com)

Maybe they are this one, if so, the lock locks the little hole in the male spade connector.

The PDF picture is how it works, so these are them. You cannot remove them without squeezing. AND you can heat shrink a tube on and the spring lock still works fine. That is what I did.

Most likely other sources and types do exist that work the same way
 
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