Dave Wilshere

Talk of wire protection on certain threads brings this to the fore. Those that like to make their own leads, this wire from PB has a fire protecting insulation sleeve. Shown here against std wire.
Sold in 5M and 10m packs

Dw

Carsten Groen

Very nice Dave!
Is it not correct that they also have a "weight saving" factor ?

Dave Wilshere

Yes, they say its lighter per meter too!

bandicootf16

Dave, what is the gauge or cross section. I 'm guessing the insulation is Teflon rather than silicon. Do you have a price.

chuckk2

That looks like it might be a variation of full size A/C wire. The inner insulation was Teflon, and a clear outer jacket was needed to protect and prevent the Teflon from having "cold flow" problems over sharp edges. The A/C wire (full mil spec at the time, no less when I worked with it!) clear outer jacket became brittle due to age and I suppose temperature extremes. Some of the older airliners are having problems. (20+ years old) when the outer jacket cracks and the inner insulation is then against a sharp edge.
(Sharp edges shouldn't be there either, for that matter!)

Dave Wilshere

Its .35mm Euro 8.75 for 5m with German 19% VAT

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][h=1]Features[/h]

• 0.35mm² cross section
• 30% weight saving
• only 11g/m
• hardly flammable
• robust isolation
• employed in full-size aviation

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

jason

My Feedback: (1)

Just been making some leads using this wire and crimps from Hanson Hobbies. This is great quality wire and I'll use it in everything from now on. The only down side is that because the insulation is tougher than normal servo wire it is difficult to strip. I ended up using a blade and scoring 3mm from the end pulling the insulation off.

Jason

siclick33

I use wire strippers similar to those in the picture and have no problem stripping the insulation.

I don't always trust my crimping so like to drop a bit of solder on the connector as well. Doing this with 'normal' wire tends to melt the insulation around the crimp and makes a right mess. Due to the heat resistance of this wire it is very easy to pop a bit of solder on, after crimping the plug, without ruining the crimped joint.

The wire is a bit thin and a tiny bit stiff, so takes a bit of getting used to after 'normal' servo wire, but I like it so far.

They also sell 'premium' wing connectors (i.e.the ones with the Multiplex plugs pre-fitted) using this new wire and they seem pretty good too.

gapellegrini

Guys,

The PB wire comparing with the Ultra Wire 16 available at Dreamworks seem very thin. Would this be a problem using servos like 8711 on big planes.

Thanks for your help

Gabriel

siclick33

Is the Ultra Wire 16, 16 gauge? If so, that is a very big cable and a quick search of the internet suggests a conservative load current capability of over 20 amps. I think you would struggle to get that in a servo plug and I don't think it's supposed to be used as a servo cable.

The PowerBox wire does look very thin but the cross sectional area is bigger than that of their 'standard' cable which looks more like a normal servo cable. Therefore, I would suggest that it can carry more current than you might think. That said, if you are worried about it then use a thicker cable, but I wouldn't use a 16 gauge wire.

bandicootf16

Ultra Wire 16 is 16 awg silicon wire. Heavy duty servo wire is 22 awg or 0.0326mm2. Powerbox wire is 0.35mm2. The wire looks thin because the Teflon insulation is very thin and hence being lighter than PVC wire. 22 awg PVC and Silicon servo wire is about 14.7g/m and the Powerbox wire is quoted at 11g/m which is a 25% weight saving.

gapellegrini

bandicootf16 and siclick33 thanks for your answer.