Higher gauge pigtails

[lancer1991]

Been researching things and try to get moving forward with small display to get my feet wet. From my research I'm leaning towards going with 14 awg wire for power injection. My question is all the xconnect pigtails I see are only 18 awg, so do I just accept 18 awg pigtails and then connect 14 awg to those? That just isn't registering as the right way to go in my mind. I've thought about using automotive connectors to make my own due to this.

 

[1pet2_9]

Agreed w/ Mike.

 

[mrGrumpy]

Been researching things and try to get moving forward with small display to get my feet wet. From my research I'm leaning towards going with 14 awg wire for power injection. My question is all the xconnect pigtails I see are only 18 awg, so do I just accept 18 awg pigtails and then connect 14 awg to those? That just isn't registering as the right way to go in my mind. I've thought about using automotive connectors to make my own due to this.

Size your pigtail to your element and/or pixels. MikeKerb references 22 AWG for pixels, so anything 22 ang or larger. I have mixed pixels and feel one size pigtail doesn't fit all, therefore I have different size pigtails......but mostly 18 awg.

as you are fusing for the smallest wire which is probably the 22 awg pixel wire, the 14 awg would be for voltage drop and multiple drops. All good on the differences.

Mike, if I have 4 power injection points, and fuse each for 3 amps, isn't that 12A, therefore over fusing 22 awg. Upstream is 14 awg, so some protection there, and downstream would share the fault load with the other fuses, so, you could have a constant 10A fault without blowing a fuse......pixel wire is now the fuse. Consider adding a negative lead fuse between each pixel string. This limits current to 2X the fuse (one on each end) the pixel wire is more likely to handle this wiring/fuse sizing.