How wires connect to terminals and to each other; coloring and organization schemes; appropriate wire selection and installation techniques
Questions tagged [wiring]
1038 questions
80
votes
7 answers
Using clothesline steel core wire rope for AC and DC
As I am currently in a war zone, I don't have many options for cabling.
I found this clothesline (steel core plastic wire rope) that appears to be one mm of diameter (steel core diameter.) 13 meters of it measured 7 ohms resistance.
Edit: It is 3.8…
USER249
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76
votes
5 answers
What is the name of these little plastic things that protect wires from being cut into by the sharp edges of a drilled hole?
What is the name of these little plastic things that protect wires from being cut into by the sharp edges of a drilled hole?
Zhro
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58
votes
2 answers
What do solid/striped lines on a wire indicate?
What do solid or dashed lines on a wire indicate? Is there a difference between the solid and dashed indicators?
Mark Harrison
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45
votes
5 answers
Is the neutral wire considered safe?
If the neutral wire carries current, why do many people believe that it's safe? I've heard "You can touch the neutral wire/bar in the breaker box and not get shocked. Only the hot can hurt you." If the circuit is complete and current is flowing,…
Stephen Melvin
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41
votes
6 answers
Why does my circuit work on a breadboard, but not on a perfboard? I am new to soldering
I'm a total beginner when it comes to soldering, and recently I've been trying (and failing) to solder together a simple circuit I put together for a Raspberry Pi sensor.
Although it works fine on the breadboard, when I solder it onto one of my…
Sebastian Villate
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40
votes
3 answers
What's a schematic (compared to other diagrams)?
What's the difference between a schematic, a block diagram, a wiring diagram and a PCB layout?
Why do engineers want a schematic instead of a wiring diagram?
Where does Fritzing fit into this?
JYelton
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37
votes
2 answers
What are those weird wires in the audio cables?
Trying to repair a headset cable, I discovered that it doesn't look at all like the “ordinary” cables I used to repair. I was expecting to see, inside the cable jacket, four wires, each one in a wire insulation. Instead, there is:
A wire with a…
Arseni Mourzenko
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29
votes
13 answers
How can I wire a 9-position switch so that each position turns on one more LED than the one before?
I have a 9-way switch like this guy:
And I'm trying to figure out how I can turn on one LED with position 1, 2 with position 2, all the way up to all 9 in position 9.
Obviously I can repeat all the wiring for the LEDs at each position, but that…
Isaac Lubow
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28
votes
10 answers
How do I power/wire something that is rotating constantly WITHOUT extra batteries?
So I want to make a Lazy Susan that is rotating constantly in one direction. I also want to have some other things on top such as neon signs, moving things, and etc. Problem is I want this to all run off of one DC source. Problem is I cannot figure…
Sie
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22
votes
9 answers
Why is the chassis used as ground in automotive electrical circuits
Automotive electronics generally use the metal chassis as the negative ground connector for the DC circuits. Obviously this saves something on wiring. Is there an electrical reason for this approach?
(I am not asking why negative instead of…
bib
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21
votes
3 answers
Difference between maximum amps for chassis wiring and power transmission
I am putting together a test system that'll be carrying over 50Amps.
I need to rate the wires that will be powering the device under test and also querying voltages and signals on the device.
Looking at the AWG table hosted by powerstream there…
SeanJ
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21
votes
6 answers
How does earthing work when earth is dry?
Earthing is meant to provide reliable contact of an electric appliance to earth so that if there's an insulation fault current goes into earth instead of through a person's body. This requires earthing to be made of thick conductors driven deep into…
sharptooth
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20
votes
8 answers
How is USB 3.2 still serial when there are so many data cables?
This is a very ignorant question, as I am just getting into wiring diagrams and trying to understand them, but look at this picture of usb-C with usb 3.2:
With 2 high speed data paths, plus the old usb 2.0 data wires still there, how is this still…
justdoingmyjob
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16
votes
10 answers
Best practice in transmitting sensor analog signal over longer distances (approx. 100') -- in cost sensitive products for microcontrollers
I'm looking for best practices for transmitting an analog sensor signal over long distances to a microcontroller such as the Arduino running at 3.3v or 5v. Keeping costs low is imperative.
SPI and I2C is very common in Arduino land, but it seems…
risingtiger
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15
votes
3 answers
KiCad: Some pads to solder wires on
I am working on a PCB for which I need external soldered wires. I made the whole PCB with al the traces on the front layer. Then, with 3 vias, I got to the back layer. Here I need to solder 3 wires to the traces (green traces on picture). I used a…
jan
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