Which wire?

[ichilton]

Hi,

What wire do people use for wiring the offboard stuff (pots, jacks, switches, power)?

Will the thickness affect the sound at all?

I prefer to use stranded as solid snaps too easily when you are moving around trying to solder & test, but then I got some 22AWG stranded from Tayda and it doesn't fit through the holes on the etched boards i've been building.

I've got a load of cat5, which is solid and snaps very easily, but is nice and thin, and neat as it's twisted together in pairs (although, will that cause a problem?) - but it's very thin....will that affect the sound at all?

Also, do you build them loose so you can test before boxing, or do you fix pots, switches etc in the box and solder wires in place?

Thanks,

Ian

[Geiri]

I use this. and I'm happy with it. What I do is I bend and move the wires as little as possible when wiring things up.

I start off by wiring the grounds of the jacks together along with the power jack in one wire. Then I wire the -LED to pin 1 on the 3PDT. Next are pins 2,3 and 6 that are grounded to the input jack ground. Then I wire the input from jack to 3PDT and output from jack to 3PDT. Last depends on if the output comes from the Volume 2 (or other pot) or the board. If it's from the pot, I wire it. When that's done, I look at the layout from top left, going down and then top right going down and clip the wires in the approximate length for each connection and wire them to the appropriate place in the enclosure. Then it's ready to wire the circuit to all those wires standing up.

Hope that helps you!

Btw, I know you weren't asking for that info but I thought I'd put it anyways.

[IvIark]

I've got a selection of different sizes which I bought to experiment with when I wanted to see what I preferred to work with.  I got some 24/0.2 and 32/0.2 but it's too thick IMO for pedal building, so I got some 16/0.2 which is much better and certainly useable, but I ended up with loads of reels of this:

http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/7-0-2-Wire-on-100m-reels-plain-colours-502641

Which is perfect I reckon.  A good compromise to keep wire size down and without the annoying strain you get from thicker wire, but sturdy enough to be easily usable without worrying about the cores breaking too easily or being awkward to solder.  And as an added bonus cheap as chips.

[ichilton]

That's interesting Geiri, thanks.

So you do it all in the case?

They also do a thinner (and cheaper) one - item: 330809404422

Or think that will be too thin?


Mark - woah, that is cheap! - but only if you spend £20 to get free delivery. Is there anything else rapid is good for?

Just looked up the enclosures you linked to in the enclosures thread a while ago, but they are about £4+vat when under the 20 breakpoint, which isn't so great.

Thanks,

Ian

[GoranP]

I use these. Shipping is your run-of-the-mill highway robbery but then again, everything being shipped to my neck of woods is, so....

Pretinned stranded, great stuff!

These
http://www.guitarpcb.com/apps/webstore/products/show/2249043

and lately these, perhaps even better
http://www.pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PPP&Category_Code=WIR

[IvIark]

Well I buy my stripboard from them too, the 119mm x 455mm boards will last for ages and are very well priced:

http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Equipment/Stripboard-29453

I also get carbon comp resistors from there if there is anything you want to make as a mojo build:

http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/0-25W-Carbon-Composition-Resistors-79893

They also have a nice poly box cap kit:

http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Miniature-polyester-capacitor-kit-62509

I'm sure you could get that up to £20 pretty easily

[ichilton]

Ah, cool - those poly box caps are cheaper than Tayda.

Do you know if they are 5% or 10%?

Thanks,

Ian

[Geiri]

Yup I do it all in the enclosure. I like this thickness because it's pretty solid and strong. I also try to use every opportunity to put a wire from the enclosure to the board to make it sturdier. What I mean is for example if any lug on a pot needs to be connected to ground, instead of hooking it to a ground point somewhere on the jacks etc., I wire it to the ground strip on the board.

[IvIark]

I think they're 10% but not 100% sure

[ichilton]

Interesting Geiri - thanks!

IvIark - yeah, I thought they would be for that price.

Ordered a few colours of that plus a pack of the capacitors and one of the boards, which scraped me above the £20 free delivery.

I'd also already ordered some of this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330743588965 and this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170977604718 last night before IvIark posted so hopefully all that will keep me going for a long time to come!!

Thanks,

Ian

[IvIark]

With the vero it will probably be good for around 40 x Eternity or Zendrive size circuits and so should last you a good while.  The additional bonus in buying it in the bigger sheets is that you're not limited to the number of rows you can build like when you get the smaller boards.  So doing something with 29 rows like the Mad Professor Snow White Autowah isn't an issue.

[ichilton]

40x circuits out of a single 119mm x 455mm sheet (the £6 odd one)??

I didn't realise it was that big!

[IvIark]

Yes, it's 46 rows high by 179 columns wide so you'll get plenty out of it.

[ichilton]

Cool!

And hopefully a few reels of wire will last me the same!

Ian

[GoranP]

I really envy you folks that can score such low prices not only on parts but also shipping. Oh well...

ichilton wrote

and this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170977604718 

This looks somewhat interesting, the price is about the same as smallbear, efxconn and ppp but with free shipping. What I'd like to know (once you receive the wire) is whether only the ends are tin plated or the entire wire (doubtful but you never know)?

[Vince]

There is also Rapid on Ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-0-2-Equipment-Wire-on-100m-reels-Select-Colour-Required-when-Buying-/380445364158?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&var=&hash=item58944f8fbe

[GoranP]

Yes but the shipping is ridiculous. It starts at 25gbp....

[GoranP]

Geiri wrote

 When that's done, I look at the layout from top left, going down and then top right going down and clip the wires in the approximate length for each connection and wire them to the appropriate place in the enclosure. Then it's ready to wire the circuit to all those wires standing up.

Just trying to visualize this, do you wire your boards with components facing up or down?

[tabbycat]

this might seem random question, but has anyone here tried teflon coated wire? i've been reading that it is less likely to melt than the regular stuff.

i use the standard plastic-coated 7/0.2mm hook up stuff (get it from a uk ebay seller on 20m rolls) and i find that it seems to shrink back at the merest whiff of heat. i don't solder at anymore than the minimum time and heat required to get a nice join, but i find that the wire i use does tend to melt back from the join leaving more wire exposed at a join than i would like.

it could be that it's crap wire. or my soldering technique. but i wondered if anyone else suffers from shrink-back syndrome and what they do about it?

[Beaker]

Ex shrink-back syndrome sufferer here - he he.

I use this PTFE coated silver wire now, from our friend in Bulgaria. It's awesome - strong but very supple, super easy to solder with no shrink-back at all!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100ft-approx-30m-high-purity-silver-plated-OCC-teflon-PTFE-wire-for-audio-SQ-/171948783268

The disadvantage of teflon coated wire is that it is harder to strip - you need a really good set of wire strippers.

I also use the two core plus ground Van Damme XKE install shielded cable. That stuff is XLPE coated, and even tougher to strip than PTFE (I can only strip it with a knife). Also totally shrink back free though.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Van-Damme-Pro-Grade-Classic-XKE-1-Pair-Install-Cable-BY-THE-METRE-10-Colours-/181308920422?var=&hash=item2a36da9266