What gauge wire is best?

[Drum Thumper]

I'm going to be moving a few buttons on Frankenstripe. Should I use 18 gauge or 20 gauge (AWG) wire for the new connections?

FWIW, it's not the power and reset switch. I'm planning on scavenging the wires off of the respective original buttons for those.

TIA

[Airbozo]

Depends on what the wire is carrying. Just a switch to short pins? 20 gauge. If it is going to carry power 18 gauge. If it is low power, 20 awg will be fine.

Good info here;
http://www.interfacebus.com/Reference_Cable_AWG_Sizes.html

Or here;
http://nwrcsm.freeyellow.com/DeterminingProperWireSize.pdf

[Drum Thumper]

I'm stealthing my DVD drive and rerouting the open/close switch. So it looks like it'll be 20 AWG.

I am also thinking about doing some rewiring on the fans to tidy up the mess that will inevitably happen, so I'll use 18 AWG for that. I've stole some great ideas from a lot of modders on this site, and will hopefully be able to incorporate most of em.

[NightrainSrt4]

Since you brought it up, what type of wire would you use for a pc power switch. I have a momentary switch, just wondering what type of wire to use to hook it up to the mobo. And I dont think I have on of the little connectors to slide the wire into to put on the mobo. Would it be ok to simply shrinkwrap the wire to the pin? That way nothings exposed and the connection is there?

Dont mean to hijack, but seeing how we are on what type of wire is used for what situation. =)

From the above post by airbozo, I would assume I would be using 20guage for the pins?...?...

[jdbnsn]

The wires to the power switch don't carry the current, they are simply shorting the switch pins when you press the button so you could use thin wires for this. Shrink wrap is probably sufficient as long as the connection is good and secure.

[Drum Thumper]

Since you brought it up, what type of wire would you use for a pc power switch. I have a momentary switch, just wondering what type of wire to use to hook it up to the mobo. And I dont think I have on of the little connectors to slide the wire into to put on the mobo. Would it be ok to simply shrinkwrap the wire to the pin? That way nothings exposed and the connection is there?

Dont mean to hijack, but seeing how we are on what type of wire is used for what situation. =)

From the above post by airbozo, I would assume I would be using 20guage for the pins?...?...

20 AWG for the pins. I dunno about you, but I'm planning on cannibalizing the old switches, since they already have the proper connectors.


The wires to the power switch don't carry the current, they are simply shorting the switch pins when you press the button so you could use thin wires for this. Shrink wrap is probably sufficient as long as the connection is good and secure.

The key here is making sure that your connection is good and secure. Which is why I'll be busting out the soldering iron when I get to this phase of my mod.

Edit--I just +repped jbdnsn and he got his 7th bar. Congrats!

[Airbozo]

...yeah I would do more than just shrink wrap the wire to the pins. One thing that I _used_ to do, was to use a wire wrap tool to just wrap a piece of wire around the pin. (that is how it was done in the way-back-when-times-of-old-and-lore)

REF: http://www.me.umn.edu/courses/me2011/robot/wrap/wrap.html

Pay attention to the last 3 lines of that link...

More pics...
http://www.sampson-jeff.com/article/art1/a1-2-4t.jpg
http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd4229/wire-wrap-10.4.jpg
http://www.homebrewcpu.com/Pictures/wire_wrap_closeup.jpg