need help wiring h22a's heatsink

[jasonsmaglites]

first time i've used h22's heatsinks. i bought six of them. im building 3 p7's and 3 p4's. all are annodized if i recall to isolate the positive base of the seouls. heres the problem i didnt have with my previous heatsinks (britelumens). i cant fit the plastic power wire through the small holes on his heatsink. so i had to strip the positive and negative wire and run them through. when i test the led it works if i just touch both ends. however, not if i run them through the heatsink and then touch both ends. however, i can run the ground wire through (only the ground) and get power to the led. this leads me to think that as h22 made his drill holes, the inside of those drill holes are not annodized and if i try to run the positive wire through, it touches the heatsink and grounds out. anyone run into this before? what should i do? do i need to buy skinnier wire to the plastic can continue to isolate the positive wire? or should i drill the positive hole in his heatsink a little fatter to get the entire shielded wire in?

 

[Norm]

Either way will work Jason.
You need to drill both holes so, the negative is insulated too.
Norm

 

[tx101]

I would use thinner wire
Have a look at the teflon sleeved wire sold by Mudman CJ

 

[Justin Case]

What gauge wire are you trying to use and which heat sink has the holes that are too small -- P7 or P4?

 

[jasonsmaglites]

same size holes but its the p4 that im wiring now. dont know the guage. isnt too thick but insulated it doesnt fit and stripped it does. i shouldnt need to adjust anything on the negative side. more ground shouldnt hurt right?

 

[VidPro]

this is easy, most wires have ample insulation, making them fat, good to protect from hundreds of volts , with leds we need better WIRE and a nice strong thinner insulation. so you got it stripped, just Heat shrink it, heat shrink makes a nice thin covering that will still insulate for more than 100volts even. as long as you dont rip the heat shrink when you pull it through, and on the corner edges of the holes and such.

Side rant: it is really intriguing me the way they are wiring some low voltage stuff today, they put a thin hunk of crud wire in, then a HUGE fricking heat resistant insulation around it. Jam some amps into the thing, like for a RC motor, and the leetel teeny wire is heating up. well DUHH so that is why the insulation is heat resistant.
BUT , wtf cant they put some descent WIRE in to begin with, then it has far less resistance, and it doesnt heat up so therfore you dont need the heat resistant covering, less resistance means better efficient, and more power going to its intended location.
WHAT! are copper prices so high and the bean counters so low that they spend twice as much trying to be CHEAP about it.

 

[wildstar87]

Shouldn't be a problem drilling the holes out. I did it for my P7/MC-E Mods so I could fit two wires through to contact each lead. As long as you keep your exposed wire short (you should anyway), it shouldn't touch down into the hole.

Heck even if one wire touched, in theory it shouldn't affect anything, since the rest of the heatsink is anodized, there shouldn't be any positive or negative connection, you would only have to worry about a short ciruit if wires from both sides were touching the metal in the hole.

I've done this a bunch of times so far, and never had any issues.

 

[jasonsmaglites]

good advice. i've never been on a forum that has so many educated answers to anything a guy encounters. this place is truly a class act.

im gonna drill the positive hole out and or self insulate my wires.

 

[Norm]

One of the big problems these days is that hook up wire sold in cheaper stores looks quite substantial but on closer inspection the insulation is very thick and the wire itself is very thin. I guess plastic is cheaper than copper.
Norm

 

[Bimmerboy]

WHAT! are copper prices so high and the bean counters so low that they spend twice as much trying to be CHEAP about it.

Bean counters are usually smarter than that (I mean, in their bean counter kind of way), or they wouldn't be bean counters.

I guess plastic is cheaper than copper.

Case in point.

Jason - if you drill out the holes, make sure to deburr afterward to minimize sharp, insulation cutting edges. Do make sure to also use best quality wire you can get though. Don't just use the bigger holes in order to use crappy wire.