As the title says, where do other teams buy their wire?
We’ve been buying from the BNTECHGO amazon store, but they don’t have many good options for 4awg wire right now (which we want to upgrade to). Obviously we would prefer a more flexible option.
looking at powerwerx, they seem to have some good options?
https://powerwerx.com/welding-cable-epdm
and if we buy connectors from them too it will save us money on shipping.
Definitely shop around and don’t be a fool and pay FRC vendor markup for something like wire. I’m glad you mentioned powerwerx because they seem to have fair rates. By comparison CTRE offers the same exact items like 12awg Silicone wire 25ft but with an almost doubled price tag
If it was connectors I’m a little more inclined to look for genuine items and name brands. Wire I’m less picky and care more about the flexibility and price.
I’m trying to put a big emphasis on wiring next year, we didn’t have any issues this year but I’m trying to prevent any issues for future years after I’m off the team.
I’ve also seen some people talk about wire from
places like that, but I’m not sure how much shipping will be from mcmaster.
I’m trying to find wire that will fit in the 6awg contacts for sb50 so we don’t have to buy sb120 connectors.
Our team uses Powerwerx because it is great quality, arrives quickly, and has both traditional and really flexible wire. The Zip Cord really helps with wire management.
Also, if you’re buying from there anyway, check out our affiliate links. LAUNCH TEAM Robotics - Powerwerx
I am a fool
seconding powerwerx, specifically their ultra flexible and silicone wire, usually ordered together with powerpoles
also, another question, do yall use ferrules on your battery wire to prevent stray wire?
and if so what barrel length of ferrules, looks like up to 18mm would be fine.
assuming this refers to the REV PDH, no because the number of connect/disconnect cycles didn’t justify it, we only ferruled wires that we were taking in and out a lot when debugging and swapping components
We bought all our wire from McMaster this year.
22 awg for CAN and signal wires in white and purple, and we twisted it ourselves - McMaster-Carr
18 awg for low current devices in black and white - McMaster-Carr
12 awg in black and white for motors (drive motors and elevator motors ran 10 awg) - McMaster-Carr
This wire has a much thinner OD than any silicone insulated wire we could find and I believe it’s lighter.
+1 for McMaster. They are also so absurdly fast it seems like parts teleport to us.
We also picked up some wire from CTRE; usually if we were ordering something else or needed to pick it up the same day. (Local vendor FTW)
We get our wire from Corsa Technic, but only because we are sponsored. It’s absurdly expensive for our application otherwise (about 3x the cost of what @AllenGregoryIV posted). They do offer FRC discounts FYI.
It’s not as flexible as a lot of the options, but has super thin teflon insulation which makes bundles way less bulky. It’s based on aerospace spec wire (I think just not certified).
What about for the battery wire?
We’ve used a variety of different 4 awg copper flexible wire over the past few years.
This is the latest stuff we bought from amazon - WNI 4 Gauge 20 Feet Red 4 AWG Ultra Flexible Welding Battery Copper Cable Wire - Made in The USA - Car, Inverter, RV, Solar: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement
We’ve also used this from amazon as well - Amazon.com: EWCS 4 Gauge Premium Extra Flexible Welding Cable 600 Volt 25 Feet Each Black+Red : Tools & Home Improvement
How does the flexibility of those two compare? I typically wouldn’t associate PVC insulation with being either ultra flexible or more expensive than silicone.
+1 more for McMaster, we really like their zip wire. It’s super flexible and sometimes arrives 5 minutes before we knew we needed to order it.
All kidding aside, depending on the time of day that place an order I can get it in close to 24hrs. @10219Ryba in terms of shipping, it’s based on a lot of factors such as weight, distance, etc. My last order from McMaster included some small items and a 100ft roll of 18-AWG zip wire. I’m in Texas and the order shipped from their Douglasville, GA warehouse. Shipping on that order was $32.07 and I had it within 48 hours.
I always shopped around when I was buying for the team, but more often than not, especially if I was buying several sizes of wire and APP connectors for the season (meaning also that a week delivery time was not an issue), Powerwerx had the best price among the wire, the connectors, shipping, and not appearing sketchy.
Several times the smaller wire (18+ AWG) from ServoCity, Maxbotix, Pololu, particularly when also buying servos or small motion hardware or sensors at the same time.
I’ve never bought ferrules for FRC, but if you do, make sure the shape of the ferrules match the connectors they are to be placed in, and buy a decent quality crimper. Just in general, it’s easier to get crimps right than soldering, but for any crimped connector, you still have to have decent crimpers, and connectors, and get the wire strip diameter and length right.
Going to recommend the Powerwerx wire for power again.
We got the vast majority of our CAN wire for the past two seasons from TTB I think. Most of the PWM wire we used came from REV and Molex, although that’s mostly just because we had it on hand.
We have had issues with the low gauge Powerwerx wire fitting into the Molex connectors, I think the insulation is larger than expected and needs to be trimmed down. This applies to both the 22 and 24 gauge
We purchase all of our wires and connectors (except Powerpole) from ProwireUSA. The Tefzel and TXL insulated wires are particularly great.
Does the Teflon insulation make the wire stiff?
It would be a good idea to bring a reel and/or documentation to show to the Robot Inspector to prove it is the correct gauge. One of the RI’s found a team that was using an illegal type of wire because “it looked too thin”.
That seems both slow and expensive for McMaster compared to what I’m used to. I haven’t been the one ordering lately so maybe I am off, but $15-$20 seems like what I’m used to, and I usually expect at most 18 hour shipping if I’m ordering late afternoon.