Model Railway Forum

I am struggling to easily solder the wires to the terminals on my DPDT mini switches for my Tortoise point motors.
I am hoping for some help and guidance on the best techniques from you chaps here on the forum.
The bit I am struggling with is where the 12v supply comes in on to the top terminals of the DPDT switch and then are looped on diagonally to the bottom two terminals. Is it best to bare an inch or so of the cable in the middle and then wrap it around the top terminal, or is it better to cut the cable and try and solder the two ends to the terminal which can be tricky? Is it best to loop the diagonal bit over the top or around the edge?
These mini DPDT are quite small and fiddly and the holes in the terminals are not quite big enough for a 7/0.2 or 16/0.2 cable to go through.
I look forward to hearing recommendations, suggestions and tips on how best to do this soldering.

Simplest is to connect the two wires going to the Tortoise motors 1 & 8 terminals onto the switches middle tabs.
Your power supply feeds (12v DC?) to one end pair of switch terminals together with a pair of switch link wires. These link wires connect switches upper left to switches lower right and the switches upper right to switch lower left terminals.

Solder wires onto the switches tabs, they don't have to pass through any holes.
Simples

This may help? https://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/images/ ... Motors.gif

I have used link wires provided for breadboard use as my cross-over wires on these small switches.
Another method I have seen is drill out the associated holes in a bit of vero-strip board and solder this to the switch tags, making sure you have cut through the vero tracks as required. You can then more easily solder your wires to the vero-strip board. Same idea as you see on some 8-pin DCC sockets.

Some switches accept spade connectors which you just push on.

teedoubleudee wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 11:33 am Some switches accept spade connectors which you just push on.

As TWD has pointed out if your switches have flat terminals the sockets for the smaller spade connectors will fit. Peco do some ready made wires with these on, at a price. You would not have to do too many before it became more economical to invest in a suitable crimping tool and a bag of connectors and do your own.

Richard