20 gauge wire sufficient?

[BilldaCat]

Is 20 gauge wire ok to wire the controls for a cabinet with, or do I need to get 22?  I know little, if anything, about wiring -- all Home Depot had was a 20 gauge stranded spool.  Estimates to how many feet I need are also appreciated.

Thanks!

[TalkingOctopus]

That will be fine. As for how many feet, I don't know how many controls you are making or what the setup is, but I think a spool of black and a spool of red will be sufficient.

[BilldaCat]

Standard arcade cabinet (MK2 cab), 6 buttons each player, joystick, 2 start buttons, about it.  Thanks for the advice.  

I'm rewiring it because I bought it off someone and it worked for a while but now most of the controls died (like all but 1 button).  so I figure I might as well make it mine now, and I'll learn a lot of stuff by rewiring it myself.. can't break it anymore.

[grafixmonkey]

Remember higher gauge is smaller wire.  And find someplace to get a whole spool of it!  I ended up having to buy individual 25-foot boxes from Menards cuz I didn't want to wait for mail order, and I paid 10 times what I should have and went through 10 boxes of it for my 4-player cab.  For two 6-button controls, measure from the center of each layout, horizontally across the panel, then vertically down to the ipac, and multiply that distance by 12 (to have extra), and that's about the length of cable you will probably use for that controller.

I used 16 gauge stranded wire because it gave me nice sturdy wires, but electrically 20 gauge should be enough for everything.  Get stranded, not solid, it bends more than solid without breaking, and is easier to solder and crimp.  16 gauge was a little bit too big for my Molex pins, but it worked anyway.  Might come undone later, but hopefully not.

If you use crimp-on quick-disconnect connectors, get connectors that you can fit two wires into.  That makes wiring your ground loop suck much less.

I suggest wiring each little set of controls (i.e. one group of buttons, one joystick's switches, the start/coin buttons) to a separate loop of wire, if you're using 20-gauge.  When you attach them, leave a wire hanging off each loop.  Then connect those hanging wires together to a wire that goes to ground.  I'm probably taking theory too far with this, but I think that gives you the most reliable ground loop, and might help with debugging.  (if none of player 1's buttons work, but the joystick does, you know where the problem is.)

Also, you should have a continuity tester of some kind.  Either a cheap voltmeter that can beep if you touch its contacts together, or a plain continuity tester.  It's hard to check for problems without it.  If you plan on using any LEDs that aren't pre-made ready-to-plug components, you have to have a voltmeter.

[Ted_Striker]

16awg is way too big...  that stuff can handle 15 amps.  I would say go with 20awg and no bigger than 18awg.  Another option to consider is multi-conductor cable.  Sometimes you can find cable that has several conductors that would be cheaper than what a spool would be (Cat5 would be an example of multi-conductor but not the ideal  choice).  Just strip off the insulation and away you go.  Also there is nothing wrong with solid cable.  It does "break" easier, however once your control panel is done and mounted there will be very little stress on the wires.  So the odds of them breaking are slim (unless you are going with swapapble panels or rotating panels or something similar.)  I used 22awg solid wire on my cabinet and haven't had any wiring related problems at all (3 years "done" and counting).  So if you can get solid wire cheap... then don't pass it up because it "breaks" easy.  

That said, if I bought wire I would buy 20awg stranded.  I used solid because I got it free.  Free is always the best .

Another idea to limit the amount of wire you need is mount your ipac to the bottom of your control panel.  Your wire runs will be much shorter and you won't need as much.  you may not have the room under there... but it is a thought.

[grafixmonkey]

Got the 16awg stranded because it could bend the most without anything bad happening.  Saw how thick it really was on the molex connectors, but I already had all my quick disconnects and wire.  Now I wish I'd gotten 18 gauge wire for main loops and 20 for ground loops, with disconnects to fit those thicknesses.

Did your solid core wire crimp well?  Seems to me having a single solid cylinder held by friction would make the wire pull out of the crimps pretty easily.  The stranded wire I could crimp to squish the wire in two directions, so that the metal of the plug would have to be bent back out to let the wire go.

[Ted_Striker]

you need an electricians trick .  I did have the same problem but a guy at work helped me out.  

When crimping small awg solid wire strip off twice as much as what the connector requires.  Bend the wire in a U shape (or hook however you want to look at it).  Slip the wire in the connector and crimp.  You actually will be crimping the same wire in 2 positions and the bend will actually "hook" the crimp.  I hope this is clear.  IM me and maybe I can shoot you some pics if you don't understand.

Also,  make sure your connections are secured with strain relief.  After you make your connections, secure them down to your cp.  Then anchor all of the wires going to the ipac in such a way that pulling on the bundle of wires will not put strain on the actual crimp.  They sell adhesive backed plastic tie downs for this.  You just stick them on and wire tie your wires to them.  Let me see if I can find a picture quick.....

http://www.arcadecontrols.com/images/Wiring2.jpg

The picture shows the plastic things I used.  This is from the first desktop controller in the examples section.  It has a real old school write up so forgive me.  It is over 5 years old.  Back when keyboard hacks were the way to go .

Doing those 2 things, I haven't had a wire pull loose or "break" yet.

Hope this helps you.

Jim

[grafixmonkey]

I was just gonna ooze some superglue into the back of the molex once I was sure I wasn't gonna change the pinout.