Gold Plated M3 Screw and spacer

Why not silver?

Brass, preferably plated, is fine. Alodined aluminum would work well too. The important thing is to make sure the screws stay tight. The PCB material will tend to cold-flow over time, making the screws loose, and then the connection can heat up because of the 10 amps, which enhances the cold flow, and you have runaway. Use wavy or belleville lockwashers, split rings if that's all you have.

The current is kind of low for this to happen, but I've seen serious waveform distortion from running high currents through steel spacers... at currents like 100 amps RMS. Thought they were brass, but they turned out to be plated steel. That sure confused me for a while.

John

I've used nickel-plated everything in the past. Washers, screws, nuts, even the circuit board. Is that still environmentally legit in CA these days?

Yesterday I came within 100ft of your building driving down Van Ness, the steering wheel desperately wanted to pull into Otis Street by itself but I was in a serious rush to get to I80, where of course there was a truck accident ... :-(

Next time I'll stop by, promise.

You had better.

John

Don't you think you should determine the need first? The requirements analysis for gold is generally not about current, but about keeping oxidation OFF of connectors that are meant to be cycled numerous times throughout their life.

Not needed. Also, relying on a screw to clamp up electrical connections between two PCBs is the wrong approach. Two screws and a threaded thru stand off will allow each screw to clamp up to each board individually. That is far more reliable than trying to clamp the board together with a screw and hoping that makes the contact good over a long term. Definitely would not pass vibe tests.

No. Not for this application.

Not the clamp method you describe. Even a small strap of copper and a screw on EACH PCB would be better.

So what? Gold plated PCBs are becoming the norm in the RoHS realm. That does not mean that gold is needed to connect to it/them. There or anywhere else.

It depends on what metals it gets mated to. Tin plated copper is the norm. Nickel Cadmium used to be it, but the environmentalists went apeshit over that as well.

"Alodined"? Bwuahahahahahahaa! Talk about overkill!

There are plenty of standoffs in the market that are bare Aluminum and they work fine in nearly all environs.

No shit?

That depends on what the PCB is made from, Mr. Retarded Assumption Boy.

You are guessing as you go.... again... obviously.

Bullshit. Those are for mechanical, NOT electrical connections, you stupid twit.

I'll bet that wasn't hard to do.

You are getting weirder and weirder. Every one of your posts is a rant about how smart you are and how retarded everyone else is. You have turned into a snarling, mangy junkyard dog.

You are very angry and very isolated. That can't be fun.

John

Maybe AlwaysWrong is right? Anyone who responds to AlwaysWrong's posts all the time must certainly be retarded, don't you think? ...Jim Thompson

If responding to DimBulb is retarded, what is responding to responses to DimBulb? ...just asking.

Well, for a purist AudioPhool, the basic spacer, washer and screw must be made of ultrapure Osmium, then plated with one mil Rhodium for best adhesion, topped with 99.99 percent gold plate (balance of gold alloy is copper to add strength and hardness).

^^^^^^^^^

You're right. They *were* very weak. Could you make stronger ones?

Not all techs are like that, John. Some can be a real asset to their company, and often spot things others miss. I sat through more than one design review as a tech. Not that some of the engineers liked it, because I wasn't afraid to point out valid mistakes. I never pointed to an individual and blamed them, though. Whenever possible, I caught them away from others and gave them the information. Most appreciated it, but two would blow up every time.

Rather than 'Do a dimbulb', I had researched the issue and found what we needed to do to fix the problem, and never demanded credit for the fix. I've met blithering idiots like dimbulb at a couple companies. Usually, they had been there 15 or 20 years and were at the top of the tech food chain, yet their skills were well out of date. Several reminded me of the PHB in Dilbert strips. :(

Certainly. But a lot are, and some companies, especially big ones, have a style that tends to alienate techs and production workers.

I sat through more than one

We had a PCB design review yesterday and a production person sat in. He pointed out a couple of mistakes we made. Thanks, Paulo.

The engineers are blithering idiots, too, if they don't help and respect the techs.

Electronics keeps changing at an absurd pace. Everybody has to work at it to keep up.

John

Unfortunately some have the stupid attitude, I learned everything Ineed to know in school. :(

I may not be on line much longer. Another severe weather front is about to hit, and one tornado has already passed. One is supposedly heading towards a school a half mile from me, right now. They are warning you to seek shelter, but I don't have a safe room.

Yet another retarded twit chimes in.

Your mother should be jailed as a felon.

None of the techs I work with experience this horseshit either, so you are also about as full of shit as it gets. You are cable trash though, so it stands to reason.

We even have assemblers in our design review meetings, but I wouldn't expect a couple of total retards like you two fuckheads to even come close to understanding that your pathetic little worlds do not match what the rest of us have lived.

You could be a little more full of shit, but not today.