Stranded Wire is all Created Equal? -

[iserian]

Planning on using 18 Gauge throughout for my 3 way Cocktail build.  Is all stranded wire created equal? 


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HACYOS/ref=gno_cart_title_1

[Nephasth]

I would recommend 22 gauge.

[Unstupid]

What type of connectors do you plan on using?  18 guage is pretty thick.  Just make sure it works with what you need.

[iserian]

I would recommend 22 gauge.

Is 22 fine for ground as well?

[mgb]

Just a quick tip, if you really wanna make it easy on your self and have your wiring come out nice and neat, buy a cheap jamma harness.
heres one from jammaboards.com http://www.jammaboards.com/store/jamma-full-cabinet-wiring-harness-loom-jamma-h1.html

take it and cut off the 56-pin connector end and then you have pretty much all the wire you need with the quick connect ends already on. the wires are 22 awg with 18 awg wire also.
if you have aot of buttons, buy 2.

as far as your question about 22 awg being ok for grounds. if you talking about the commons to your switches (some refer to them as grounds, though not technically correct), then yes.
grounds for grounding metal cabinet components should probably be 18 awg just as power cables (12v, 5v) would be in an arcade cabinet.

[iserian]

Nice - this looks like a easy/good way to go.

[PL1]

Just a quick tip, if you really wanna make it easy on your self and have your wiring come out nice and neat, buy a cheap jamma harness.

Better yet, Paradise has 1 meter wires with crimps already attached.  They have them in single  wires or rainbow packages of 16 with .110", .187", or .250" crimps.



Cut to length, strip, attach to encoder.


Scott

[mgb]

Yeah thats cool too but the jamma harness also comes with daisy chained common jumpers.

[PL1]

Paradise has daisy chain grounds  in all standard sizes, too. as well as a set of 2 14-position daisy chains (1 red, 1 black) for powering your single color admin LED buttons.

I mostly mentioned the crimps+wires since Bryan just recently added them and lots of people might not know yet that he carries them.  Also, if someone is already making another purchase at Paradise, they could save on the shipping.


Scott

[iserian]

I reduced as much of my wiring as I could by going with ultralux rgbs.  For the rest LR the wiring I picked up spools various colors in 18 ans 22.  Now I need to buy the 110 molex connectors to hook my rgb joysticks to my pacleds.

[RandyT]

Planning on using 18 Gauge throughout for my 3 way Cocktail build.  Is all stranded wire created equal? 

To answer the original question, no.  There are a number of variations in stranded wiring.  They are:

Number of individual strands - More strands means more flexibility and less likelihood of individual strands breaking when being constantly flexed.
Insulation diameter -  Wire intended to carry larger power loads will usually have thicker insulation.  There are number of standards which dictate the jacket diameter. 
Conductor material -  Straight copper is common, but there are others with different  mechanical properties.
Tinned - Some stranded conductors are tinned throughout the entire length of the wire.  It's good where more rigidity is desired, but also better flexibility and breakage resistance  than solid core.

The proper gauge depends on the amount of current the wire is intended to carry.  In the case of encoders, you don't need much.  Even 28ga ribbon cable would be fine, but may pose a challenge for screw terminals, and crimp connections, unless designed to use small gauge wires.

If using the wire for LED's, especially higher current varieties, you need to calculate the maximum current draw which is likely to be placed on the any of the wires.  The individual output wires going to the LED's are not as big a concern as the common chain, as this single wire needs to carry the current for all of the devices in that particular chain.  Multiple common chains will reduce the need for heavier wire.  There are charts available online which show the maximum current load for any given gauge conductor.

The EZ-Lights harnesses at the GGG store are pretty handy for common chains, be it LED or the ground loops for encoders.  Based on the chart above, these should be good for about 2.3amps of power transmission per chain.

RandyT