LED wire

[Rogerp]

I am a novice to electronics and wiring and am planning to light up the Polar Lights TOS Enterprise. What size wire should I use for the LEDS?
Also what's the best source for the smaller gauge wire?

[jwrjr]

With certain exceptions (mostly Luxeons and the like), leds draw only 0.025 amps max each. I use #28 wire most of the time. Digikey and Mouser carry that. It is inadvisable to use wire wrap (single strand) wire. If it gets nicked (nearly inevitable) and bends a few times, it will break.

[Rogerp]

Am I looking to use Hook up wire?

[Arsenic Hipster]

Unless its something special (higher current) yeah hook up wire is what you want. The stuff I've got is sold as light duty hook up wire its 13 x0.12mm tinned wire strands and um... 26AWG. it was about AUD$4.50 for a 25m roll, and comes in about 8 colours of insulation if you want to make it easy to keep track of what goes where. The label says its good up to 600mA though I wouldn't really know, I doubt I've gone anywhere near that. I have used it to run LED's in models and for other bits and pieces such as hacking some cheap playstation control pads into arcade sticks without any problems.

On occasion for some quick stuff or using a breadboard I have used scrap CAT5 network cable and pulled the strands out of that but its only single strand like the wire wrap stuff and as has been mentioned can be broken easily. With the multi strand stuff it doesn't matter if you don't get every thread connected or break a few it'll still work, I found that came in handy when crimping the connectors for the arcade sticks, or threading the wire through tiny holes in PCB. If a strand was sticking out somewhere I just cut it off.

[Madman Lighting]

I dont agree about the fragility of 30AWG wire wrap wire. I lit up DS9, Enterprise NX-01 and Enterprise D using 30AWG wire wrap wire and its good stuff.

There's some good ways to handle it:

Use a good stripper that does not nick the wire. Even the cheap one that comes built into the Radio-Shack wire wrap tool is good enough for that.

Keep the insulation on it except where you are making electrical contact. It is thin but the insulation keeps it from breaking. I've even wound it into multi-wire strands and it keeps going.

I found the 28 and 26 gauge wire too thick to wrap with the wrap tool so I just dont use it.

[macfrank]

Use a good stripper that does not nick the wire. Even the cheap one that comes built into the Radio-Shack wire wrap tool is good enough for that..

That's my experience as well; I've used 30AWG wire wrap wire for years; as long as you use the proper tool and technique and don't nick the wire (or bend it excessively) it should be fine. Once it's inside a model, it's not going to be moving a whole lot.

[Madman Lighting]

Hey macfrank,

I followed the links back to your web page and we use the same toner transfer method for making prototype PCBs. I see you've got the same hot roller laminator that I do, recommended by those guys at Pulsar. Thats how I made prototypes for all my products, including the ones with surface mount parts. Once I knew the artwork was good, I send out to Advanced Circuits and had "real" pcbs made.

Seems great minds think alike.

[macfrank]

Hey macfrank,

I followed the links back to your web page and we use the same toner transfer method for making prototype PCBs. I see you've got the same hot roller laminator that I do, recommended by those guys at Pulsar.

Are you using the Eagle layout editor as well?

BTW, you can also use some clay coated inkjet papers (especially the Kodak Anytime Picture Paper) as a toner transfer paper in a pinch. Once you laminate the paper onto the board, soak everything in water and peel and rub the paper off. The toner will remain firmly stuck to the copper.

I have the Pulsar decal system, too but haven't had time to test it.

[Madman Lighting]

Nope, I use a freeware copy of Electronics Workbench http://www.electronicsworkbench.com/ because it also lets you simulate your circuit before you bash your brain in about why it dont work.

But thanks for the link to CadSoft, I may try it.