just wondering what’s the standard wire gauge used to connect the pack through to the wand? I have proptronix pack lights and hyperdyne wand lights.
It doesn’t matter really. 26 AWG would be a good choice.
You may find this useful:
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/category/72
You could get one of the long F/F wires with crimped terminals… they come in up to 5’ lengths, and then stick them in these housings:
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/category/70
I assume you know which pins on the proptronix kit need to be connected to the hyperdyne kit. It’s probably just two wires. So get a couple 2x1 housings and stick the pins in there and they’ll lock in place. (they’ll only push in easily one way) I assume they used standard 0.1" pin strip headers on their kits that take these kindsof connectors since that’s what almost everyone uses.
Also make sure you plug the wires in into the connectors in the right order so the pins with the arrow on the housing match up. That’s your pin 1. If you do that you won’t have a problem figuring out which wire goes where when you thread it through the hose and they’re all the same color.
:shock: 26awg would be rather thin and prone to snapping, especially if it’s not stranded. Get stranded 18, 20 or 22. Depends how many wires you’re running through the tube.
alright, thanks a lot. appreciate it.
Just how much stress do you think he’s gonna put on the wire? You’d have to tug pretty hard to break a 26 awg wire in two.
In fact I just pulled one apart right now with my bare hands to see how much force is required. It’s quite a bit. It probably wouldn’t happen just rattling about in the wire loom.
I suppose if you let someone hold your thrower and they tried to yank it away from the pack it could break, but… I’d be more concerned about the electronics being yanked about by a wire which is too short. In fact, I’d rather the wire break if it’s pulled that hard and it’s anchored at both ends by an expensive sound and light board.
Anyway, I was going under the assumption that the wire would both be substantially longer than the wire loom and that the wire loom would be securely fastened. I figure most thrower hoses are around 4’ long. You could also stick a vinyl tube inside the thrower hose and then stick the wire in that and make sure the vinyl tube is securely cmaped down inside the pack and thrower if you want to be absolutely sure and you’re not confident in the strength of the wire loom alone.
Also he would still need some way to attach a thicker wire to his kit. So he’s probably going to need little wires and connectors like that anyway. I wouldn’t reccomend soldering something to the kit permanently.
[edit]
Oh and btw, those jumpers are stranded.
I was thinking more of the constant bending back and forth at both the pack connection and the thrower connection points from walking while holstered and pulling the thrower. Real easy to snap a thin wire.
How many newtons were required to break the wire?
Unfortunately I left my force guage in my other pants pocket. 
I just don’t see the wire loom bending enough to actually cause that to happen. I mean one of the major annoyances of the wire loom is that it doesn’t bend a whole lot.
Plus, even if it does break, it’s not like it isn’t simple enough to splice or replace it.
Coming from an aerospace electrical background, solid wire that is 26 AWG will fatigue quickly, even with the bend radius being what it is, not to mention the bumps and such a thrower will endure. Avoid thin AWG solid strand wire if you can.
I agree that it probably won’t break in the loom, I’m talking about the 2 attachment points getting torque from the swinging loom and transfering it to the wire. As simple as it’d be to fix it’s better to not have to in the first place. :whatever:
Chapter:
That may be, but the jumpers I suggested aren’t solid wire.
I was planning on running CAT5 cable through the loom and have a small connecter that is soldered to the switches in the gun and the leads on the sound chip in the pack.
Anyone see any major flaws in that design?
How many wires do you need for the interface between pack and gun lights? If you can get by with 6, you could use telephone cable. Be less expensive and a little easier to work with.