What cable between battery pack and unit?

[4thpage]

What sort of cable do you guys use between the battery and the light itself? With the light design and battery I'm using, I'm going to have two female ends. I will just solder to male ends to either end of the cable between the two...but what sort of cable? Gauge, etc?

 

[cotic600]

Not sure what connectors your using there (unless they're bare pins) but for all my LED builds i've been using this cable and these connectors, if you're using a li-ion pack like I do then the 5 way connectors work very well for balance charging so long as you keep the charge current under 2 amps. hope this helps.

http://uk.farnell.com/pro-power/2182-0-5mmblk/cable-flex-2182-black-0-5mm-per/dp/1387667

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/br...cs=true&locale=en_UK&catalogId=&prevNValues=0

 

[Goldigger]

I used 3amp 2 core round flex..I could probably use something with a lower rating but it was the lowest i could find at the time.
I think it really depends on current draw from the batterys..

 

[dickybeau]

Not sure what connectors your using there (unless they're bare pins) but for all my LED builds i've been using this cable and these connectors, if you're using a li-ion pack like I do then the 5 way connectors work very well for balance charging so long as you keep the charge current under 2 amps. hope this helps.

http://uk.farnell.com/pro-power/2182...per/dp/1387667

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/bro...revNValues%3D0

These look a bit like the connecors on my Hope lights. Does anyone know if they match? I am wondering if i can use the Hope batteries that i already have..

 

[DanU]

Wire choice is heavily dependent on the current draw from the battery, how long the cable is, and how much wire loss you can tolerate. I used 18 AWG speaker wire (1.024mm diameter for you metric guys) which I had lying around to power my triple SSC P4 light from a 7.2V NiMH Sub C pack. It draws 1.6 amps from the battery. The wire resistance, according to some tables I can find, is about 7 milliohms per foot for 18 AWG wire. At 1.6A, this means I lose 11.2mV per foot. Times this by 5 feet and the total cable loss is 56mV. This is a mere 0.15% loss of voltage, which is very acceptable. I could probably go with a thinner, cheaper wire if I wanted to, but since I already had this cable, it was essentially free.