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Building My First Controls
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Benevolance:
I used the .187 quick disconnects with Cat 5 and it worked fine. You may have to double up the strand a bit to get a more snug fit. The problem I had using cat 5 was stripping the case from the individual wires. My wire stripper only went to 22 gauge. I believe Cat 5 is 24? Anyway, it was a small chore, but I still finished all the stripping and wiring in an evening.

For my ground wire, I used a spool of 16 gauge copper wire acquired from Princess Auto. It's the best store in Canada. It cost about $5-6 for three 20' spools.
jholman76:
I got some cheap wire from a Home Depot locally. They had some in the doorbell area. I'm sure you can get some 22-20 guage really cheap at an auto parts store also, plus no shipping costs.
danny_galaga:

cat 5 type wire is sufficient, AND you have a whole bunch of different colours. Wiring it all the same colour would be confusing as hell (although people do it and survive the experience).

A suggestion i saw on another forum was to use old printer cables, which always seem to be lying around...
jholman76:
I used a cheapo belkin parallel cable last time I tried a hack and, man, it was super thin.. like 30 guage if that exists. it was so thin that when I tried to strip it, it just broke the cable. Maybe thats what I get for using a cheap cable.

Oh well. Cat 5 has worked well since. I just use the solid strands for ground and the striped strands for the input. A description on a little piece of tape on the cable doesnt hurt either.


joe
Ginsu Victim:
For thin wire, the QuikStrip has worked great. I love this tool. I don't care if it IS a Billy Mays product!

Click pic for link
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