Where to find wire?

Delta

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 19, 2004
Messages
432
Looking for the size wire that commonly comes attached to the board in flashlights. My friend and I have been trying to mod Nuwaii lights and they all seem to have the same amount of wire in them: Not nearly enough. So the first step would be replacing the wire with longer. I figured DX would have some, but no. Any ideas/Suppliers...or know what size to look for? Probably Radio Shack I guess.
 

warlord

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
362
Location
Northern Illinois
If you cut open a USB wire you'll get a bunch of colored wire exactly the right size for wiring LEDs to drivers.

A few years ago, I put my original Xbox into a computer case so I had to hack up a bunch of wires to make Xbox to USB adapters. I wound them all up and sorted them by color to save for future projects.

Also, if you cut open the cable from old console controllers you'll get the same thing. Gamestop sells those things cheap.
 

Illum

Flashaholic
Joined
Apr 29, 2006
Messages
13,053
Location
Central Florida, USA
for regular hookup wire radioshack has down to 22 gauge single spools but in some cases its too thick for your needs. They do offer a two wire spool of 24 gauge intercom wire, I have no idea what sort of performance those may yield.

I rummage through office junk and sometimes find dead or broken mice or speakers...rip those open and you have plenty of 24+ gauge wires to work with...they are good except they tend to melt if say...your drawing over one amp through them. you can get away with 1 amp on 22 gauge though:)
 

Probedude

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
456
Location
Ventura CA
If you cut open a USB wire you'll get a bunch of colored wire exactly the right size for wiring LEDs to drivers.

Also, if you cut open the cable from old console controllers you'll get the same thing. Gamestop sells those things cheap.

The nice thing about getting these wires is they're usually high strand count, very fine wire to keep the cable flexible.
 

Probedude

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
456
Location
Ventura CA
look for 22-24 AWG, silver coated teflon wire on eBay - best wire for mods!

I've found teflon wire to be pretty stiff - insulation wise. At least the mil-spec stuff I've used it fatigues the wire right where the insulation ends in high flex usage (not that wiring lights is a high flex usage, but still much stiffer than PVC)
 

DonShock

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 28, 2005
Messages
1,641
Location
Belton Texas
I use 22 and 24 ga teflon coated wire for most of my mods. I get it from Action Electronics.com in 25 ft spools.
 

phil2

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Feb 20, 2012
Messages
1
If anyone is looking for wire you should checkout certicable.com they have almost every size and color you can think of they even stock cat 7 put that on your xbox 10gb transfer rate the also stock fiber cables with media converters so you can connect cat wire to fiber wire they have also started to sell led lighting cant wait
 
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