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Where to buy 24 AWG wire?
ZaneMn:
I went to Home Depot, and to Radio Shack, there are no Lowes in the area. Neither carried 24 AWG. Radio Shack had AWG 22 which I bought the first time (only 3 colors availible), plus the 22 gauge solid copper core was stiff and I wanted a wire more plyable, like what is on a trackball.
Also I was asking (even though it was murdered by my typing) is it a pain to put quick dissconnect crimps on 24 AWG?
ZaneMn:
--- Quote from: seaner on March 27, 2003, 12:19:26 pm ---You might consider using cables that have several conductors, like cat-5. I used this to wire up my panel, keeps the wires in relatively neat bundles and the wires are colour coded as well.
Something along the lines of:
http://www.beerbot.ca/mame/wiring.jpg.html
--- End quote ---
No that is a pretty slick idea! Never thought of that. And I have about 2000 feet of Cat 5 laying around. Thanks for the tip!
Chad:
Cat 5 is great and that is what I used for my box but it is brittle and I had to fix a few wires along the way.
http://people.smu.edu/cmadding/mame/control%20photos.html
Hope that helps.
Wade:
I have 500+ ft of cat5 network cable left over and I didn't even consider it for wiring my control panel. Each wire is solid copper so it can break relatively easily, and also it is very thin wire (and again solid) so it won't crimp onto spade connectors properly. I have tried to crimp solid wire before and the connections were never durable or reliable long-term.
The first time your friends are over and some buttons or a joystick direction stops working, you'll wish you hadn't used it.
I almost bought the 3 roll colored stranded wire from radio shack but found some harnesses from parts I had gutted from one of my cars. Between that and some other spare wire I had laying around, I ended up with enough length and colors to wire my panel in a manageable way.
I really do wish the local stores (Radio shack, Lowes, Home Depot) had more of a variety of colors and sizes of wire though. I looked at Lowes and never found anything suitable (didn't try Home Depot tho).
Wade
seaner:
--- Quote from: Wade on March 27, 2003, 01:33:45 pm ---I have 500+ ft of cat5 network cable left over and I didn't even consider it for wiring my control panel. Each wire is solid copper so it can break relatively easily, and also it is very thin wire (and again solid) so it won't crimp onto spade connectors properly. I have tried to crimp solid wire before and the connections were never durable or reliable long-term.
--- End quote ---
While it's true that the conductors are solid, how much flexing is going on inside your panel?? I've rarely encountered a cat-5 cable that has a busted conductor in it, and that's after running quite a lot of it through my walls, etc.
You could consider cat-3 (I believe) which is braided, not solid, and typically cheaper than cat-5. And of course crimping to cat-5 is basically a no-go.. just get ready to spend a couple of hours soldering.