I’m looking for a new source for high temp rated, possibly silicone insulated wire for building drop ins and wiring flashlights, etc.
I’ve seen a few threads that mention other members selling small quantities but I was hoping for an online vendor or similar.
Where do you modders get your wire from?
[edit] Since I started this thread I’ve gotten some great wire from a couple places so far:
Johnswireshop.com - eBay store with large assortment of sizes and colors. Mostly teflon wire, a bit stiff but very good with heat. Illumination Supply - Very flexible silicone wire, 20-26AWG red or black. Not always in stock it seems.
Cool thanks, if only they stocked smaller wire, too! Wiring up triples things can get pretty tight on that little MCPCB. Considering the minuscule distances involved (2-3mm) and relatively low power I figure 28 AWG would be fine for an amp or two or so.
Yep, I used to use the Deans wire when I did a lot of RC work, it’s good stuff but I remember it being for fairly high power application, i.e. heavy gauge stuff is all I ever found…
As for using oversized wire, for as short of distances as I’m working with (jumpers on a triple PCB mule) even 28 AWG wire would only lose less than 0.02 V which is quite irrelevant and you probably couldn’t even detect that small of an output difference without the most advanced light measuring tools.
Personally I’d rather use a smaller wire and get a cleaner looking install, as that will be something I’ll have to look at every time I use the light. If I use bigger wire and jam it all in, it will look kind of ugly plus I won’t be able to see a difference in output, so the way I see it I’ll stick to the smaller wire.
This is just my personal preference however, and I know plenty of guys want to push things to the absolute maximum and for that using the biggest wire is best. I’m a bit less interested in peak performance I suppose, although honestly in this case I don’t think my way is any less bright.
