[Elecraft] KX1 Battery Pack Connection Broke

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Matt, if you look at the connector, you'll see that there is a little
locking tab on the side of the connector opposite the "ears". If you press
down on the tab so it no longer hits the connector housing, then push back,
you should be able to remove the old female connectors easily. I've done
that and, with careful soldering, salvaged the existing connectors to attach
to new wires. 

When you reinsert the connectors in the housing, be sure those springy
locking tabs pop up to positively lock each connector in the housing. If
they won't insert far enough, it's certain you have too much solder on the
connection. 

My KX1 has the "stock" battery wire length and I have plenty of room to open
the back and lay it end-to-end next to the front panel to change batteries
without even disconnecting the battery cable, although unplugging it and
replacing it is no problem at all. 

73, Ron AC7AC



-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Matt Hancock
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2012 3:26 PM
To: don at w3fpr.com
Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KX1 Battery Pack Connection Broke

Got it. Bottom line is, even after cutting and adding the new crimp pins,
I'll have enough wire to open the back.

Will make sure to disconnect the connector from the board when opening up in
the future!

... Matt

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 9, 2012, at 12:10 PM, Don Wilhelm <w3fpr at embarqmail.com> wrote:

> Matt,
>
> If I understand you correctly, the answer is no, you would cut off the old
crimp pins and solder the wires to the new ones.  There is a diagram in the
Final Assembly section of the manual.
> If (and only if) you have the proper crimping tool, you may crimp the
leads instead of soldering, but very few have that tool.
>
> The leads must be short - there is not much extra space inside the KX1.-
only about 1 1/2 inches should be free.  When you remove the back to change
the batteries, you would normally just remove the connector from the KX1
board.
>
> Many builders do not insert the crimp pins into the housing correctly.
>
> There are small tabs that must lock into the rectangular holes in the back
of the housing.  You must slide the crimp pins in with some pressure toward
that side of the housing - there are slots on the inside of the housing
where the "flanges" of the crimp pin slide.
>
> 73,