PowerBlock wiring
2016.12.19.A
N0ZYC

gather:
- 5 sets of 35/45A powerpoles - housings and contacts
  (no roll pins needed)
- 7cm of #10 stranded twin lead
  (or twice that much single lead)
- 46cm of #16 stranded wire (speaker wire works great)
- 1" of 1/2" heat shrink tubing, electrical tape,
  or similar thin electrical insulator
- epoxy, clamps or weights, polymide or filament tape
  etc, something to secure housing halves together
- small wire ties or tape to bundle wires during assembly

prepare:
1. cut off 69mm of #10 twin lead, or two lengths
   of the same single lead
2. cut off 2ea of 73mm, 62mm, 52mm, and 40mm of #16 wire
3. strip one end of each wire back 7mm and the other
   end back 5mm.  7mm is for the powerpoles, 5mm is
   for the splice.
4. tin all stripped ends.
5. solder in all wires to their own powerpole contacts.
6. pair up the red and black powerpole housings and
   insert wires, with each powerpole having two wires
   of the same length.

assemble:

You will notice the powerpoles only fit one way into the
block, they are slightly wider on the inside on one side
to make room for the extending dovetail on one side of
the housing.  Fit all five powerpoles into their slots
on one half of the block.

The trick now is to find a way to hold all five wires
together for soldering.  There is more lateral room (front
end of block with four poles on it vs the back) than there
is vertical room (one shell side to the other) and there's
not a lot to spare so you have to plan your wiring
arrangement carefully.  Attach all the red together first.

I used a small wire tie to hold the 10ga together with two
16g that were toward the rear.  Once loosely tied, I bent
the tinned 16ga toward the 10ga until they touched, then
snugged the wires to equal lengths, then tightened the tie
slightly, not too hard or it will deform the wire jackets
when soldering.

I then gap-soldered the three wires together.  After that,
I placed the remaining two wires together on the front
side of the bundle, wire tied, bent, snugged, tightened,
and gap-soldered them to the 10ga also.  I carefully built
up the gap solder and reflowed it a bit to make sure it
was all solidly filled and not cold soldered.

Repeat this for all the black in their own separate
bundle.  Remove wire ties when done.  Use a pliers to
crimp down then bundles a bit if needed, to reduce their
height and width if wires aren't completely straight.
Fit a bit of heat shrink tubing or electrical tape to the
red wire splice, the black can be left exposed.

I got my wire ties attached on one side with my housings
all in the block, then moved them to the other block and
connected up my ties on the other color of leads, removed
them for soldering, then finally reinstalled into the
housing and pressed it together.

The housing will have a bit of spring to it as the wires
only just fit.  There are snap-locks in the two posts, but
they're not very durable and shouldn't be relied on.  Use
epoxy or a non-stretching tape to secure the two halves
of the block together.  Don't use superglue, it will
probably dissolve the plastic of the housing.

tips:

- Don't try to use heavier wire for the four out unless
  you can find some with a thin jacket.  There's very
  little room inside the block and you may need to run
  the smaller gauge under AND over the larger gauge
  to get it to fit in.
- The powerpole housings lock into the blocks by way of
  small ridges that fit in the groove for the locks pins
  on the sides.  After pressing a housing into the block,
  shift it forward and back while pressing down until you
  feel it settle down into place.  Do this every time you
  install them, they have to be fully seated for the
  block to close completely.
- If your block doesn't want to completely close, check
  the height of the wire bundles leading to the splices
  and make sure all powerpoles are fully seated.
- Wire lengths above are all the way down to the mm for
  a good reason.  Use tolerance of +/- 1mm when cutting.
- Plan the route of the wires as they approach the splice
  or you won't be able to fit them in.  Leads from the
  connector neareast the common will meet closest to the
  10ga from the common.  Leads from the fartherst will
  meet farthest away from the common.  This helps reduce
  the need for wires to cross over each other and making
  the bundles too wide to close the block on.
- Rather than installing a powerpole at the end for power
  feeding, you can just run the #10 wire right out the
  opening for a few feet and put a powerpole on the end
  there instead.  Just wrap some electrical tape around
  the wire where it exits the block, to protect the wire
  from the edges of the block.  It doesn't break down
  as well and isn't quite as flexible of an option than
  having a separate feed line, but lowers the cost of
  the arrangement by two powerpoles.

If you figure out a clever way to install a switch in
the block, I'd love to hear about it.  A power indicator
LED should be fairly straightforard though, just make
a 5mm hole in the end of one of the block sides, near
the feed point.  Install a 5mm LED and appropriate
resistor and feed with some 22ga solid from the splice.