Servo wire?? (not 3 wire flat)

[Dave Osborne]

Hi.
I am looking for some wire to make some extension leads for my electric retracts, amongst other things. These have only got two wires so I do not really want to use normal "3 wire flat" servo wire. firstly I would like to avoid the extra weight and bulk and secondly I do not really want to strip a redundant wire of the normal flat servo wire for any considerable distance to avoid possible insulation damage issues. Also the retract wires would be part of a quite substantial custom wiring job for a model with lots of servos etc so colour coding would really help.

Basic requirements are 22 AWG, variety of colours high strand count. I would like to avoid silicone insulation if possible to allow some stiffness in the wires to feed throughout he model and hold some twist.

I was looking at UL1007 but the strand count seems low at 7. Also I have all the other components (crimps terminals housings etc)

any suggestions??

Cheers Dave

[Robin Woodhead]

Look at the web shop for Component Shop, very good range, good service .

Component-shop.co.uk

Robin

[John Rickett]

Maplin is as good a source as any with all the colours of the resistor colour code. 24/0.2 will just fit into the connectors so will give provide maximum mechanical strength and all the current carrying capacity you will need.

The cable can normally be bought in 10 metre packs, or 100 metre reels, I've used it for years and have not had a failure yet.

For a two wire system, twist it by holding the wires in a vice and wrapping one over the other - don't use a hand drill as it will just undo itself. For a three wire system, plait it, this is an excellent way of preventing induced currents in long lengths.

[Dave Osborne]

thanks. when you mentioned 24.02 I looked it up and it makes more sense now I know its the metric equiv. I ordered some from Maplins.

Dave.

[John Rickett]

Dave,

If you find that the 24 strand wire is too difficult to work with (the insulation fits in some connectors easier than others) then 16/0.2 will be the next best thing, this is still thicker than ordinary servo wire.........and still cheap!

Where possible I prefer Mutiplex connectors, they are more robust than the servo type connectors and will accept much larger cable thicknesses. Being 6 pin, they can be used for two servos or the pins could be doubled up for redundancy.

[Dave Osborne]

Thanks. I did order some 16..02 in the end as well. I am using Molex (ashlock) connectors.

Cheers Dave