can i use speaker wire as replacement?

i’m running out of wire… can i use speaker wire ( monster wire) for LEDs? or is it too big?
what size wire is good fordriver replacement wire?

If there is space for it, then it will work fine. However, if the LED is direct drive than it could supply to much current (very low resistance)

is buck drive the same as direct drive?

No, if it has a driver than it should work fine.

That would depend on how big your Monster is.

Somewhere around here I have a piece of Monster speaker cable you could use as a heat sink.

OTOH, if you know any network cable installers, their scrap ends will give you enough wire for a lot of projects, if you don’t need more than a couple of feet at most. You get 8 color-coded wires at a time. You’ll likely get “Cat6”, which has 20ga conductors, which are rated to 11A. I use this and love it. You can take existing pairs and double your capacity without much more fuss. Chuck them in a drill if you need to tighten the twist of a pair. Best of all, you can strip it with a hard fingernail and solder sticks to it very well.

Have you tried tinning your Monster Cable? Does it bend tight enough to not pull the LED off the heat sink? How far will it push the reflector off the LED? So many questions! :open_mouth:

I’d leave it, but that’s just me.

Category 5 and 5e wire is 24 AWG
Category 6 wire is 22 AWG

My biggest complaint with both is that they generally use crappy insulation that melts instantly when you get near it with a soldering iron.

Buy some 20 or 22 AWG PTFE or Silicone and be happy.

thanks for the advises… RJ 45 wires sleeves is kinda stiff though, i guess i’ll order some silicon covered wire and use that mosnter cable as reinforcement for the spring :slight_smile:

I’m sorry, you’re right. I was looking at the box in front of me, and it’s ICC “Cat6*e*”… That one little letter…

It seems pretty ductile, and it wicks solder beautifully. I strip enough to finish all the soldering on one end, then slide the insulation back into place as far as I need it to go, then trim to fit. Small hemostats or a matchstick sink the heat pretty well for the second end. All the rest is going to Recycling anyway.

I got the impression the ‘B’ word (and I don’t mean “budget”) was off-topic… But yes, if you’re buying, go for Teflon, preferably in colors!

Dim

Buy a roll of 18ga UL 1007 (stranded, flexible, rated to 300V) wire. You can get 1000ft on ebay for under $30. Since it’s only rated to 300V, the insulation is fairly thin so the overall diameter is small. It’ll work well in a flashlight.

For heavier-duty jobs (light bars, reef light setups, etc), grab some 14ga or 16ga MTW (machine tool wire) or UL 1015 wire. It’s highly stranded (16ga should have around 40 strands) and is quite flexible. You can routinely buy 400-500ft spools on ebay for under $40.

Be aware that the THHN-type wire that you find in home centers has a nylon jacket and tends to not have as many strands. This makes the wire very durable and the nylon jacket makes it suitable for outdoor use but all this comes at the expense of flexibility. THHN isn’t very suitable for situations where you need to bend the wire in tight quarters.

Edit: UL 1015 can also be solid but for your purposes, you definitely want the stranded flavor.