Piezoelectric 'Interface' Cable

About that "stranded tinned copper" wire: is it the same kind that you see inside cheap earphone wiring, has what looks like tiny nylon threads running through it? If it does, that's an absolute pain to solder to because all I've ever seen the solder do is build a little ball at the end. I've never personally had any luck putting that kind of wire into anything I built and can only assume that special equipment/training/luck is required.

Can you provide more specifics about the circuit?

Well, the 'buzzer' sits inside a mount, on that mount are placed different shapes, when a button is pressed a 'bucket' of water is run over the shape(s). That pressure from the water hitting the different shapes then puts pressure on the buzzer. That output got into a sample and hold circuit - which is converted by a Stamp to output different values (bar scale of LED's).

I did notice that there is a small bead of copper inside the wire... I tried to 'tin' the wire but it doesn't want to hold any of it. I tried crimp connectors but don't get much change in output. The connections to the buzzer needs to be water tight.

Also some telephone cords have just a cotton core that has barely seen copper. Replace that piece of misery with something decent. Your buzzer needs no special approach.

Thanks Everyone! The problem was the cable, when I tried soldering a bead to it, the first few did not want to stick - nor did any until I made a ring around the wire lol So I ended up replacing the cable. :)

Now someone can shoot me!

Hello, good you changed the wire. But for all who might have an identical problem in future: There is an old trick from the "old ages of radio" when this kind of multi strand wire was used for all coils to increase the Q factor of the coils in AM and SW receivers:

We engineers had always an Aspirin tablet close to the solder iron. Put the end of the wire on top and heat with the solder iron. The axid of the Aspirin tablet will clean away the isolation of the multi stranded wire and the solderability is increased by 100%. (Might be no longer in line with OSHA as the stench is bitting your nose for 2 to 3 seconds - but it works fine!)

Greetings