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  • Author Author: rscasny
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Poll: What Do Electronic Engineers Want to Know about Cabling, Wiring & Connectors

I know its hard to gain the attention of electronic engineers who get goose bumps over hearing about the fastest processor ever on the Raspberry Pi4 or the latest high-performance dual core superscalar processor running at 1.6 Ghz, and then abruptly change the conversation to talk about wiring, cabling and connectors.

 

But all electronics systems need to one degree or another some kind of wiring, cabling (for connecting sub-assemblies or system wide components), and connectors (interconnects and terminations).

 

If I have your attention, I'd like to bring you into the conversation now and ask you (as if we were sitting at a bar I frequent near my apartment in Chicago called The Globe Pub), "what do you want to know about cabling wiring and connectors." (Go ahead, take a sip from your glass of GuinnessRegistered before you answer).

 

To help you ponder your answer, check out my poll below. Or, leave a comment and tell me what what you would like to know about cabling, wiring and connectors, or, even better, share a story about the time that you wished you had known more about wiring, cabling and connectors and didn't and what happened.

 

Poll Question: What Do You Want to Know about Cabling, Wiring & Connectors?

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  • Randall, with your style in chat up lines, do you ever get a result image

     

    Interconnects is such a big and varied thing it's very hard to pick single interest (like Sean already said.)

     

    I voted for crimp terminals because they are a problem for prototypes - it would be nice if Farnell had a guide to systems where they stock all the components and a low cost crimp tool. I'm often put off a connector when I find that the official crimp tool will cost a few hundred pounds.

     

    (Litz wire would be fun too - where can you buy it !)

     

    MK

Comment

  • Randall, with your style in chat up lines, do you ever get a result image

     

    Interconnects is such a big and varied thing it's very hard to pick single interest (like Sean already said.)

     

    I voted for crimp terminals because they are a problem for prototypes - it would be nice if Farnell had a guide to systems where they stock all the components and a low cost crimp tool. I'm often put off a connector when I find that the official crimp tool will cost a few hundred pounds.

     

    (Litz wire would be fun too - where can you buy it !)

     

    MK

Children
  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Hi Michael,

    I've made Litz wire before using multiple strands of wire-wrapping wire.

    I can't say it made a difference with the project I was working on.

    Scott

  • in reply to rsc

    I wouldn't expect it to - typically Litz wire uses much thinner wire than wire wrapping wire and the individual strands have a much better copper to insulator ratio.

     

    Having said that, what were you using it for ?

     

    MK

  • in reply to rsc

    I think I've tried that before too, hehe. It's definitely a lot harder to obtain nowadays.

    Aliexpress has Litz wire, and for UK there's this supplier:

    https://www.wires.co.uk/acatalog/litzwire.html

    Amongst other uses perhaps it was most popular for AM/HF radios, because you could use it to make very sharp tuned circuits (really great for simple radio receivers), but that's fallen out of favour, since most radios nowadays won't have such a sharply tuned input, and instead will use either superhet i.e. mixing before the super-sharp filtering occurs (using other methods like ceramic filters), or digital processing, or both.

    It's also still very popular for headphone cables! but for flexibility reasons, not for high frequency reasons.

  • in reply to shabaz

    Just found wires.co.uk and was wasting time there having been sidetracked by the special offer solderable self bonding copper clad aluminium wire.

     

    The only problem is that I'm not sure what I would do with loudspeaker drive coils once I'd wound them !

     

    Would ultrasonic speakers use Litz wire image

     

    (They also sell double twisted Litz wire for the ultimate combination of high Q and good coupling.)

     

    MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Wow that would be interesting to see though! I've never seen self-wound loudspeakers.

    Very interesting that they sell self-bonding wire. I'm wondering what cool inductors could be made with that.

    That website has a cool range : )  I had my eye on the silver wires, for the ultimate audio cables, to sell at crazy prices.. but then conscience gets in the way : (