CP Wire Options

[cyapps]

I was going to use some cat5e ethernet I have (1000ft) to wire my whole cp but it is 24awg solid wire and from what I understand I should use stranded. I had already wired the ground side of things with what I have but I wanted to get the correct wire for the rest. I was looking around and the best I can find price wise is 500ft of 18awg remote wire for $20 shipped (need to confirm it is stranded though). I was wondering if this would do for everything such as the buttons and leds. I am not sure if 18awg would be a little large for the leds or not. I also thought about just ordering some 18AWG CL2 Rated 2-Conductor Loud Speaker Cable - 100ft from monoprice with some other things. It carries two wires so the amount of wire is twice the length of cable I buy, and/or I can order some cat5e patch cable and get some stranded 24awg from that for like $8 for 100ft. Some extra wire isn't to bad as I have a lot of future projects that will need some. Any suggestions or ideas?

I guess I can just go to radio shack and get some hookup wire, it seems at an acceptable price range and I would like to get my wiring done asap .

[Franco B]

I use [this] for my CP wiring.

[Beretta]

solid is fine, 24ga wire is pretty thin so it should bend easy.. i dont see any problem using what you got.

pretty much any wire will work for this purpose.

[surface tension]

Yes, you're right to go with stranded. 16/0.2 is probably your best bet. The cable that Franco B is offering up would be ideal as it really would get tedious wiring up your panel with the same colour... not to mention make any fault-finding much more difficult!

[Franco B]

 

Plus it makes your wiring runs look much neater if thats whats floats your boat.

[cyapps]

Okay, I am probably going to check out some parallel printer cable I got, as I believe that carries 25 wires which would do nicely for both players (7 button layouts with joysticks and start buttons plus ground), if none of them look suitable then I am just going to go for a roll of 20awg stranded from  "the shack".

Franco, at this point I would just be happy to get my boat in the water without sinking, but then again I guess that would be my boat floating .

[DillonFoulds]

Throwing in my $0.02...

I used cat5e on my first C/P and i will for sure 100% NOT use it on my next one.

By function, they are called twisted pairs because inside is 4 pairs of wires, twisted up. These wires will stay that way too! It's going to look a LOT uglier underneath with twisted pair than with wire straight off a roll, or with untwisted wire (Franco's).

The disconnects (if you decide to go function-over-cost) wont crimp to cat5e properly. The wire is just a bit slimmer than you'll be able to crimp easily. You can try remedying this by doubling the wire over on itself, but you'll find it still will be loose. I managed to get mine crimped but even the slightest bump when you're building/tweaking/etc. will pull out wires.

Basically, Cat5e is great if you have several lengths of it handy that you can sacrifice (I'm in IT, i had TONS of cat5e available to me). But in the end, you're going to have less headaches, and things will be more solid if you use a thicker gauge wire (see: wire that matches your crimps).

On the other hand, if you're soldering your wires directly to your buttons (please don't! save yourself the re-work trouble now!), things might be easier for you.

Points of interest:

-versus-

Also, that's DB25 extension cable coming off my terminal strips. Inside was wire that was even thinner than cat5e, don't think you'll like crimping that either...

[cyapps]

The disconnects (if you decide to go function-over-cost) wont crimp to cat5e properly. The wire is just a bit slimmer than you'll be able to crimp easily. You can try remedying this by doubling the wire over on itself, but you'll find it still will be loose. I managed to get mine crimped but even the slightest bump when you're building/tweaking/etc. will pull out wires.

Basically, Cat5e is great if you have several lengths of it handy that you can sacrifice (I'm in IT, i had TONS of cat5e available to me). But in the end, you're going to have less headaches, and things will be more solid if you use a thicker gauge wire (see: wire that matches your crimps).

I have already experienced some of this and that is why I stopped before going any further. I have a 1000ft roll of cat 5e so I figured I would give it a try and well BOOOO!

On the other hand, if you're soldering your wires directly to your buttons (please don't! save yourself the re-work trouble now!), things might be easier for you.

Definitely agree, for me crimping is the way to go.

Also, that's DB25 extension cable coming off my terminal strips. Inside was wire that was even thinner than cat5e, don't think you'll like crimping that either...

I was thinking it might be thinner, saved me a trip to the basement.


Also I like how that first panel is wired what gauge wire is that and what is it commonly called (hookup wire, remote wire or what). I don't mind using one color as I think it would look a little better.

[bkenobi]

There is nothing that says you can't use any cable you want.  BUT, if the wire is too thick it will be hard to manipulate.  Technically, it could be too thin to carry the signal, but I don't think that's really an issue with the low voltage signals carried for buttons.  However, extremely thin or pretty much any solid core wire will be more difficult to connect to the buttons since QD's need to crimp on them somehow.  If you solder them on, you won't be able to change things later, so I wouldn't do that!

What others have said...use a better wire and you will be happier when you are working on it.

[Turnarcades]

Personally I bought a set of coloured reels in the same gauge and used a certain colour for each player when I did my first cabinet, with black used for the daisy-chained ground. Cost just a few quid with tons left for future projects, and it keeps the wires grouped in a way that's easy to follow or program for.

[cyapps]

I went ahead and just bought a 75ft roll of 20 gauge (black is all they had) at "crap shack" it was $7. This should do fine for my cp and a few other projects. Later I may go ahead and buy some 500' 18 gauge reels online as they are only $20 with shipping and come in a few different colors. Thanks for all the pointers everyone. Now it is time to get crimping.