How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

[Offscreen6]

I've opened up a lot of electronics, and I keep on seeing these stupid little thin wires. On hand I can (and did) pull out three different things with this same wire in it (a clock, a mini arcade machine, and a multimeter), and I suspect my newest broken thing failed because one of these wires went loose.

These things are just overall low-quality. They're easily frayed, they never stay on their joint for long, and they're everywhere. For this reason, I call them McWires. I have attached examples below; one appears to have rusted, and the last image shows a McWire that came broken off out of the box... no joke.

Does anyone know how I can replace these with higher-quality wires or how to avoid them altogether? Any help appreciated.

[Uranium-235]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

I had a brand new shuttle xh270 and, as usual they have the sata wired with the slimline sata cable. This time it was was cut twisted back together poorly with a heatshrink over it, and the top was exposed. not even soldered. Obviously a RMA with a poor repair

[eccerr0r]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

Wire is wire. The plastic on them sucks, too hard. However it should be fine if they aren't disturbed! Especially piezo elements, it shouldn't be disturbed. Mechanical failure is what gets these wires due to the stiffness of the insulation.

It's up to you if you want to replace them but really the only way is to make sure the wires do not get mechanically moved around frequently. Zip tie, hot glue, attach them to something sturdy.

[lti]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

I've seen that wire on the AC input of cheap power supplies (like this).

The wire in the third picture looks like some kind of copper-clad stuff.

There's another type of wire I discovered that is copper-colored (not copper-clad), but its resistance is extremely high, it doesn't handle flexing, and it is attracted to a magnet. I have a "Cmple" branded cable that is made of that stuff. The resistance is about 0.5 ohms per foot for what appears to be 24AWG wire.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

There's another type of wire I discovered that is copper-colored (not copper-clad), but its resistance is extremely high, it doesn't handle flexing, and it is attracted to a magnet. I have a "Cmple" branded cable that is made of that stuff. The resistance is about 0.5 ohms per foot for what appears to be 24AWG wire.

that is probably steel wire consisting of only a few strands. penny pinching and corner cutting at its finest!

[stj]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

all this is because the bankers drove up the price of copper.

[lti]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

that is probably steel wire consisting of only a few strands. penny pinching and corner cutting at its finest!

No, I cut the cable open after one of the wires broke. It looks like 24AWG or 26AWG wire, and it has a "lightly oxidized copper" color all the way through. Also, the resistance is too high for steel wire. I initially thought that it would have hair-thin wire based on the resistance and how quickly the wires broke.

It was an extremely cheap cable, and the company that sold it has to have a bunch of aliases (like Powmax and Deer) to keep selling them to people who think they're sticking it to the audiophile brands.

[stj]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

brass / copper alloy?

[ratdude747]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

No, I cut the cable open after one of the wires broke. It looks like 24AWG or 26AWG wire, and it has a "lightly oxidized copper" color all the way through. Also, the resistance is too high for steel wire. I initially thought that it would have hair-thin wire based on the resistance and how quickly the wires broke.

It was an extremely cheap cable, and the company that sold it has to have a bunch of aliases (like Powmax and Deer) to keep selling them to people who think they're sticking it to the audiophile brands.

Copper clad aluminum?

[Offscreen6]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

It's up to you if you want to replace them but really the only way is to make sure the wires do not get mechanically moved around frequently. Zip tie, hot glue, attach them to something sturdy.

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, securing the wires sounds like it could be a good solution. However, there are some that I have around that, due to their position or nature, can't be properly secured (for example, there's a set of McWires running a high-power flywheel motor, one of which came loose during normal use).

How would I go about finding out which length, thickness, or other type of wire I can replace those ones with? Is it just a matter of resistance?

[eccerr0r]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

Also poor selection of attachment points may exasperate the issue. The solder joint is the weakest spot and you want to make sure the least amount of stress is applied there.

length, thickness, resistance, temperature, voltage, abrasion, chemical, and yes, flexibility are all part of wire selection.

[Agent24]

Re: How to avoid shitty "McWires"?

Those wires have fewer strands than usual, too, which makes them more susceptible to breaking.