What Kind of Terminals are These?

sine_wave · Joined: Sep 25, 2006 Posts: 20 Location: NY

I've seen these terminals used throughout the construction of different Buchla 200 Series modules. Seems like they can make wiring, grounding, etc, a lot easier. I've searched, but I can't find the name or "type" of what these actually are. Any help is appreciated.

Buchla_Terminals2.jpg

Description:

Filesize:

210.1 KB

Viewed:

3155 Time(s)

Buchla_Terminals3.jpg

Description:

Filesize:

48.26 KB

Viewed:

3155 Time(s)

fluxmonkey · Joined: Jun 24, 2005 Posts: 708 Location: cleve

variously called phenolic terminal strips, terminal lug strips, etc...

Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.

there are a couple of styles. still used by tube amp cloners, see http://angela.com/premiumterminalstripsfortubeampprojects.aspx

Mark Space-Ratio · Joined: Dec 06, 2009 Posts: 28 Location: Sydenham, London

Known as tag strips here in the UK and were commonly used in the old valve days when components were much larger. You'll see them on the underside of valve radio/amp chassis.
¬¬¬

sine_wave · Joined: Sep 25, 2006 Posts: 20 Location: NY

Nice! That's them! Thanks for the lead bbob. I actually did searches for "phenolic terminal strips" but failed to see anything that hit the nail on the head in such a way as the ones at Angela Instruments do.

I have a very small bit of diy tube amp experience. Mostly limited to turret-style projects. I never knew that these terminals are commonplace in the "amp world". How do they employ them? Which brings me to this...

If you go to:
http://www.synthtech.com/pix/buchla/

You'll see many examples of how these terminals played a big role in the construction/wiring of Buchla 200 Series modules. I noticed how at least one lug of the terminal is always screwed down to the panel. Was this Buchla's way of creating a Ground for each module, as well as possibly providing a clean and organized way of distributing the signals through the various cables, etc...? I can't think of any other reason why they would be used. Anyone have some solid info on this?

Boogdish · Joined: Sep 21, 2009 Posts: 122 Location: Bloomington, IN

Mouser sells cheap terminal strips in a few sizes,
158-1002 through 158-1008 are the produce numbers. They're good quality.

tubesandmore.com has some as well.

For doing one off tube amp projects or prototypes, I find it much much quicker to use terminal strips than to make a turret board or eyelet board. And depending on the layout, there's a tendency to make more direct point-to-point connections than you would have with a board which for me makes it easier to see how the current and the signal are flowing and it saves on wire.

They are still used in some amplifiers when adding a second board would be unreasonable. For instance I worked on a Mesa Boogie with a really well made double sided PCB a few months ago but it had terminal strips running near the output tubes for the parts associated with the triode/pentode switch.

here's a good article by RG Keen on point to point vs PCB which explains some of the benefits of terminal strips.
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/pt-to-pt/pt-to-pt.htm