Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [ampacity]

A portmanteau combining the words for Amperage and Capacity. Defined as the maximum current (Amperage) that a device or conductor can carry without sustaining immediate or progressive deterioration. Defined in some electrical codes.

28 questions
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Voltage Drop and Safe Current Load on CAT5 Cable

I am going to use this passive PoE injector cable set to power a Raspberry Pi model B. The Raspberry Pi model B consumes between 700mA-1000mA (mine will also be powering the RPi Camera Module). Using this cable set, I plan to power the Raspberry Pi…
Blake Regalia
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Allowable ampacity through cable

For an application we are considering pulsing a current through a conductor. The conductor have an ampacity rating of 12.5A for continuous operation. During the pulse we get currents around 25A and are therefore limiting the on-time to <50% of the…
user1029697
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Ampacity of Conductive Tape

How do I measure ampacity of conductive tape? I want to replace a wired battery to equipment connection with copper adhesive tape because I need a very low profile on the connection. The maximum current will be 200mA, max voltage 14V. Would…
Karl Peters
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Current capacity of copper wires in vacuum

I’d like to know the current carrying capacity of copper wires in vacuum. The current plan (NPI) calls for sending ~3 amps through the vacuum space of a cryostat. Has anyone done this? Have any references, links, or sage words of advice. I found…
George Herold
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Are there any rules of thumb when computing pulse current ratings for PCB traces?

Say I have a surface PCB trace, 4 oz, 50 mils. That trace should be able to carry around 15 amps continuous, according a calculator I'm using. (Obviously your trace ampacity estimates may vary with calculators, but that shouldn't matter for the…
Stephen Collings
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Are rated cable ampacities per conductor or per circuit?

I'd like to construct a cable using connectors DigiKey 708-1190-ND to connect a 20A LED to its power supply. The connector is rated "32A". In this example the connector's third pin will not be connected to anything. Is this connector: (A) Safe,…
Anthony Fouad
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How to optimise wire gauge selection for electromagnetic applications?

Disclaimer: Hobbyist "maker" with limited experience and no relevant education. Please considerate and answer in detail. Feel free to skip to "Question". Context I have an intention to build a simple solenoid for no other reason but my own interest.…
George Kerwood
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3 phase circuit, 3 x single-phase (hot-hot) loads: what ampacity?

I'm not an electrician (thus the question), but I'd like to know what is possible from a specification standpoint. Let's say we have a standard 3 phase power supply for a commercial building. We want to supply a sub-panel with 3 phase power and the…
nsayer
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Ampacity Testing

Just a simple understanding question. If I obtained a DC bench power supply that has a current limit, could I test the ampacity of a wire by connecting said wire across the terminals? So when I slowly increase the current limit, more current will…
Swifty
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Suitable connector/wire for 3A output from PSU

I've searched through the questions that have been asked but none have dealt with this particular problem: I'm designing a PSU board that will have, among other things, a 12V/3A regulator. I want to transfer this 12V/3A regulator output to a…
Tony
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Which wire gauge for a 250 ampere source?

I have two 6V 220Ah DC golf cart batteries that I want to put in series to make a 12V 220Ah output that I will connect to a 3000W power inverter. My problem is finding the proper connecting wires for the series hookup between the batteries. This…
user3334776
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how to calculate thickness of copper conductor

Can you please explain how to calculate thickness of a copper conductor for the next task: I would like to use a DC power supply instead of some batteries for my sensors. So we have V volts and AH Amp*hour. A sensor working T Hours with the…
BBK
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Why would this power mosfet be made in a surface mount package?

I’m looking at the CSD17303Q5 power mosfet which boasts a 100A max drain current. It confuses me why they have it in a VSON surface mount package because most pcbs would not be able to handle that kind of current by a long shot. The width of the…
Ryan
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Derating ampacity of a wire if it is stranded?

Do I need to derate a wire if it is stranded? Or will a #12 wire have the same ampacity whether or not it is stranded? Is this affected at all by AC versus DC?
MaxwellEE
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PSU for Ampacity test of connection

i have this problem. I have to validate with a test that my connection on my power board can carry the nominal current required by the specs. For current around 10A the setup I'm using is a Multioutput Bench PSU with all the output working in…
S.V.
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