Purchasing wires and cables

Looking at replenishing our stock and i would like to reorder some PWM cable 22AWG bonded red/White/Black…

Seem easy to do but then i ran into the number of copper strands and was wondering what the specs are for standard wires in FRC/FTC…

Found this on DigiKey:

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/general-cable-carol-brand/C0432A.41.10/C0432-50-ND/5208878

Do any of you created a purchasing guide for all your wires/cable needs?

I really want to standardized but i want to make sure i order the right stuff…

There’s no real standard. This year we got our red/black zip cord and Anderson connectors from Powerwerx, our PWM/sensor wire from servocity, and Dupont (PWM) connectors from Pololu. We source automotive terminals locally.

We buy all our PWM-style wire and terminators from Hansen Hobbies, and we’ve never been disappointed.

http://www.hansenhobbies.com/

We use wire from Home-Depot. The only thing that should vary between wire of the same gauge is the way the wire its self is made, (solid core or stranded) and the insulation, other than that the AWG system keeps things standardized.

As for PWM wire, hobby shops should carry it. It’s the same stuff that powers servos.

This is precisely why we have stopped using wire from the Home Depot and Lowes. Solid core wire (e.g. THHN) is great for applications that don’t move, like houses and other buildings, and is easy to bend to a sharp angle and keep organized, but it tends to fatigue failure (breaking) on systems which flex or vibrate like … robots. If you want to source wire locally (e.g. I need to get this working TONIGHT), go to your local Pep Boys, O’Reilly, Auto Zone, etc.

Solid wires also do not work as well with Weidmuller connectors on the PDP or the spring connectors on many of the control system pieces as stranded.

A bit overkill for PWM but certainly acceptable. You may find the standard 3-wire zip cord is more than enough.

More strands means greater flexibility and reduced effects of bending stress.

I did not research but IIRC PWM wires can be thinner than AWG22