EyezOn Forum

Is anyone else having difficulty getting the supplied wires to stay connected to the board? Can't get the wires to stay in their slots and don't want to overtighten. Video doesn't show exactly where they go into the slot. Thanks.

If you look into the ends of the terminals, where the bare wire goes in, you'll see that they're a barrel-shaped, screw-driven clamping terminal. The screws need to be backed-out far enough for the wires to slip in, then you tighten the screws down firmly.

Some of those connector types have a tab under the screw, so the screw doesn't bear directly on the wire. Some do not. (The ones without that tab are meant only for solid wire.)

You have to tighten them fairly firmly. If there's no (protective) tab under the screw, you have to be careful not to tighten so hard you damage the wire--and, possibly, sheer it off.

I took some pictures of three examples of these terminals I had on-hand.

This first is from some I probably got back in the mid-70's, when I was first introduced to this type of terminal in the Netherlands. You can clearly see the tabs, as they actually wrap up over the top of the ends of the barrels. (Thus they're hiding the screw ends.)



This next set is from some I acquired more recently. The tabs are a bit more difficult to see, but, they're there.



This last is from some I bought at Radio Shack, years ago, if memory serves. I didn't realize they didn't have the tabs until I got them home and had cut some off the strip to use. It was stranded wire I was using, so I had to tin it before using these. As you can see: With these, the screw ends will bear directly on the wires. No good for stranded with, and the possibility of harming the integrity of solid wire if you over-tighten the screws.



In any event: I think you can pretty clearly see where the wires are to go on this kind of terminal--regardless of whether or not they have the tabs.

I'm pretty sure all of this type of terminal I found on all the boards in my system (Vista 20P, 8-zone expander and, of course, the EVL4) had tabs.

Hope this helps.