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Maximum current through wire

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gonadgranny

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Hi there. Could anyone confirm what the maximum amount of current **broken link removed** wire could handle at a length of 30cm please? Ive looked at this website and it says that 30 AWG wire can handle 0.86A for chassis wiring.Would like to hear peoples thoughts on this specific wire. im not too concerned about voltage drop, more about safety. Thanks.
 

Re: maximum current through wire

It depends on acceptable temperature rise, insulation, application. But you don't identify "this specific wire".
 

Re: maximum current through wire

Hello gonadgranny,
If I'm not mistaken, the wire you're interested in looks very much like Kynar wire.
I used to use that wire when installing mod-chips into Playstation 1's and 2's, as
well as the first X-Box's.
The 0.86A seems correct.
It would be very suitable for signal wires, but I would use a thicker gauge for any
voltage and ground wires.
Regards,
Relayer
 
Re: maximum current through wire

I used to use that wire when installing mod-chips into Playstation 1's and 2's, as
well as the first X-Box's.
Click to expand...
yes its often branded on ebay as such and with ludicrous markups to boot! I use it because i am making a very fiddly project and this is the thinnest, most workable wire i could find. i think i might just have to do some testing myself by wrapping the wire around a temperature sensor and seeing what the rise is at different currents. i dont suppose the EMF field generated by doing this would interfere with the workings of a tmp36 temperature sensor would it?
 

Re: maximum current through wire

...i think i might just have to do some testing myself by wrapping the wire around a temperature sensor and seeing what the rise is at different currents. i dont suppose the EMF field generated by doing this would interfere with the workings of a tmp36 temperature sensor would it?
Click to expand...

You must consider the following while doing this experiment:

1. If you wrap the wire around a thermometer (sensor), the temp rise will be higher than what it would have been if it were in a simple chassis connection;

2. the insulation actually determines the acceptable temp rise;

3. the temp rise will be different if the wire is in a bundle that affects cooling;

4. In this particular case, the insulation is PE (not kynar) and you should not allow final temp (ambient temp+temp rise) to exceed 100C (it could be 120-130 for kynar wire)
 

Thanks for that! Will be very interesting to see how how it actually gets. i cant imagine it getting as hot as 100C but who knows!
 

I do not have a ready reference, but not only the material but also the thickness of the insulation does matter. Teflon insulated OR cross-linked PE can stand the highest temp (around 200C)- silicone rubber is also close. It is fine within the chassis because the voltage drop will be rather small. But this also shows the importance of having filter and power caps close to the destination point of consumption. You can see power supply cables in PC (cables that carry 3.3V, 5V and 12V to the motherboard) where rather high currents flow through rather ordinary looking cables.
 
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