Best wire for stripboard.

[JonathanAnon]

Hi guys,

I'm sorry cos I'm sure this has been asked a million times before but I'm about to order so I want to make sure I get this right.

I am using this veroboard for building a small motor controller using just a simple 555 timer and transistor. Up to now I've been using Cat5 Ethernet cable, cos I work in IT and have a load of it. Now it's fine but the conductor (as well as the wire) also slips through the hole, so it's awkward to solder.

What size AWG wire will allow the conductor to pass through the hole but block the outer conductor. The spec above says that the diameter of the hole in the veroboard is 1.02mm

thanks.

[mariushm]

Re: Best wire for stripboard.

Cat5e is usually AWG24 (~0.5mm diameter) , if you find that too thin you can go with AWG22 (~0.65mm) or AWG20 (~0.85mm)
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americ...AWG_wire_sizes for a nice chart with the wire diameters.

Farnell has a huge selection of hook-up wires, you can filter either by AWG or by metric diameter, by type of insulation, by solid core or stranded core and so on.

Start from here: http://ie.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/sto...rue&sf=502,716

In Europe I can also suggest TME : http://TME.eu or RS Online : http://ie.rs-online.com/web/ , both should have a large selection of wires fit for your purpose.


ps. Pay attention to what cat5 ethernet cable you're using, the cheaper ones are made out of aluminum with a thin layer of copper on top of it (it's called CCA or copper clad aluminum) - such wire is less suitable for veroboards as it doesn't handle bending well, the aluminum will break easily.

Cat6 ethernet cable is usually made with lots of fine strands of copper (or CCA) in each insulated wire, which makes the wires more flexible (and resistant to bending).

[JonathanAnon]

Re: Best wire for stripboard.

Thanks for your response.

I was matching up the diameter of the 1.02mm holes on the veroboard to the AWG diameters and the AWG18 is 1.02mm which is an exact match. But that's just gonna take up more space on the board and be more expensive. I'm thinking maybe the AWG 20 is a better match. I guess as long as the outer diameter of the conductor is > 1.02mm it will suffice.

Oh and just to clarify, I will only be using very small currents so this is not something I need to consider. Where I do need larger current I bolster up the connection with heavier wire.

[mariushm]

Re: Best wire for stripboard.

AWG18 will often NOT fit into the holes, because it's too close to the diameter of the hole.
The listed diameter is for a perfectly twisted and tensioned group of strands and this won't be the case, the strands at the end of the cable, after you remove a bit of insulation, will tend to loosen up, so the diameter of the actual wire will increase a bit.
A solution to this would be to use a wire stripper to pull a bit of insulation leaving the actual wire without protection for a small length: [insulation]==naked wire==[insulation ---]
Then, heat the naked wire and bring solder to it and you basically tin it, you glue all the strands together, this way when you pull the loose bit of insulation completely off the wires will stay together. You can then cut exactly where you tinned the wire and you have the end of the cable like a solid core cable.

[JonathanAnon]

Re: Best wire for stripboard.

AWG18 will often NOT fit into the holes, because it's too close to the diameter of the hole.

Yep, that's fine. I'm going with this. http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/products/7482112/

AWG20, so that should be about 0.80mm diameter for the conductor. Outer diameter of the insulation is 1.65mm so that will be blocked from passing through the 1.02mm veroboard hole.

Black/White/Red on order now, I just hope that Radionics dont do their usual trick and send each on in a separate package on a different day.