I Love Wire

RE: I Love Wire

jc2048 — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 10:40:32 GMT

My favourite would be the wirewrap wire that you've already shown in your blog. Not for wirewrappping but for throwing together small prototypes, modding boards, etc. Two strands twisted together is a fairly clean way to get signals from one prototype board to another - series terminate for logic if it's more than a few inches.

I have some 'directional' speaker cable. Bought this many years ago in a shop when I was buying some speakers. I don't remember now which way the arrows are supposed to point - towards the speakers, maybe? Curiously, the price was quite reasonable and it was flat enough to sit under carpet, so I bought a couple of lengths of it. As well as the directionality, solid strands were obviously fashionable at the time and, seemingly, moving the conductors apart. Quite what the rationalisations for all of those was, I don't know.

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RE: I Love Wire

dougw — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 21:03:56 GMT

I don't know how prevalent it is in the rest of the world, but around here there is a thing called "cab tire" cable, which is indestructible black power cable with white, green and black wire along with some kind of rope inside the black rubbery jacket, usually 16 or 18 gage wire.

It got its name because one of the ways it was tested for durability was to wrap it around the wheels of the office trolleys at Bell, and see how long it lasted as a tire.

RE: I Love Wire

DAB — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 19:09:19 GMT

Yes, there is something about boxes of cables just full of useful wire.

My first big project involved the creation of cables that probably totaled about 1000 different conductor pairs.

You cannot beat stranded wire for flexibility and they are very useful for high frequencies as well.

The "very" old AT&T had well developed testing methods and they never approved anything that would not last for at least twenty years.

I would say that their methods have indeed met the test of time.

Great post John,

DAB

RE: I Love Wire

dougw — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 18:18:50 GMT

Interesting topic - it takes a special mind to elevate wire beyond just taking it for granted.

If you like specialty wire, check out Brim Electronics. They have been around for a long time but still only have a rudimentary web site.

They make lots of specialty wire, but I like their BRIMFLYX wire for ultra flexibility. The 20 gage variant has 259 strands.

Also the wire used for welding cables available from several places is super flexible with high strand count.

Incidentally polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF or Kynar) has a high dielectric constant making Kynar wire good for capacitance sensors. It also has a strong piezoelectric properties and is used in sensors and actuators. See [mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] piezo blog.

RE: I Love Wire

the-dubster — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:14:09 GMT

[mention:8fb233e8974445138ef0af2b63b49f94:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] We used to have GORE[emoticon:7d377b609b6f44bf9290e3d8a0b9a733] Microwave Cables in the venerable Panavia Tornado ADV (F3 fighter) - it had a frequency range right from DC up to 10's of GHz area (later 'Times' cable then 'GORE-FLIGHT[emoticon:7d377b609b6f44bf9290e3d8a0b9a733] ' which actually was better for aircraft installations - the name gave that away . . . ).

One of our 'audiophile' colleagues managed to scrounge some decent lengths of the 'failed on aircraft' cable (frequency dead-spots aren't great in the surface to air missile search/track and fire-control radar frequency areas - not on a Radar Homing Warning System anyway).

He was made up with the stuff - apparently his home HiFi speakers sounded sooooooo much better!

[mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] and [mention:8fb233e8974445138ef0af2b63b49f94:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] that's why I now only ever buy the good jump leads - thin useless ones offer far too much resistance and have prevented me from jump starting a car on several occasions . . . a lesson learned about being cheap (and being stuck with a dead battery too)!!

[mention:f80b53cee57c44bc9d7c577d07d7c791:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] Can I further get your juices flowing with some rather lovely aviation old fashioned Nyvin or super light PTFE Coated, Kapton (Polyimide insulation) wires? ( +260 deg C / 600V) PAN6428 or newer (-65 ̊C to 150 ̊C / 600V RMS) JN1007 standard if you ever get bored . . . . .

Ah, the joys of poor wiring husbandry and kapton insulation - carbon arc tracking!!

RE: I Love Wire

mcb1 — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 12:50:43 GMT

This was done by machine, not by hand.

I can remember doing the odd one when required ... by hand.

You are right there was no other way to do it.

[mention:f80b53cee57c44bc9d7c577d07d7c791:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05]

I Love Wire!

I've done a quick search and I haven't found a condition that covers this problem.

That's not to say there isn't some medical term, but it's more likely that the person in the white coat with that 'special jacket' will use when he talks to you while fitting said jacket, and doing up the buckles at the back. [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-f095f39b-8de9-4744-9f6d-e48ce27bb17b/contentimage_5F00_938.png:16:16]

When you talk about wire it wouldn't be possible to gloss over the single strand jumper wire used in telephone installations.

They are designed to stip easily and then wrap around the block and break off.

In later installs they are terminated in and IDC (Insulation Displacement Connector) using a punch tool which includes a cutting action.

Ethernet cable also needs a mention and because it comes in two variations (patch which is flexible and stranded, and normal which is single strand). It is so verstile they are even using as interconnecting cable along with it's RJ11 connectors.

They even have a 600v version so it can be run through a switchboard or next to mains cable.

I've used the individual cable as jumper cabing because it has different colours.

The best cable I saw was something especially for the audiophies.

It was special 'oxygen free' with low impedance (or was it loss) and special gold plated connectors for the INPUT to your amplifier.

Not quite sure that I've seen a domestic amplifier with a low impedance input ..... [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-f095f39b-8de9-4744-9f6d-e48ce27bb17b/contentimage_5F00_53.png:16:16]

It was right up there with the low impedance output cables that had insulation more suited to 60kv .... but the cable is bigger so it must be better...right.

SO great post, and don't worry we'll keep your secret.

Mark

RE: I Love Wire

michaelkellett — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 09:49:54 GMT

I can remember using the very flexible telephone style wire (we called them tinsel conductors) - they were a pain to solder and were often finished off at the ends by binding thin copper wire round the tinsel and tinning it with solder. This was done by machine, not by hand.

For a while in mid 70s the business my Father and I ran did a lot of work for the Post Office which became BT during that time. We made test gear for the telephone network and were one of (if not the) last manufacturers in the UK of the original style Post Office key switch.

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There was more of this post but the E14 editor screwed up again and it's lost - no time to do more now.