I’ve run into a power problem.
I bought some solder-type USB A-plugs to go from my Limefuel battery packs to my (tinned copper braid grounding strap) power bus. But there’s no way I can solder 1.5mm^2 (16 AWG or so) wire to the plugs. I don’t even think they’ll fit in the plug housings without touching the shielding. That thickness of wire is impossible to tin, too.
These wires need to carry a bit over 2A each, and will be maybe a foot long. Am I way over-spec-ing this? What would you use?
Could you use something like this?
And then just use a male-to-female cable.
1.5mm2 is good for about 15A with a voltage drop of about 44mV/A/m laying against a heat conductive surface. Bit less current in free air.
Yes I would say that is overkill for 2A
16/0.2 would carry about 3A, for a short distance with little voltage drop. But double would probably be better -> 32/0.2
I used http://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html and worked out a drop of 0.26V over 50cm for 16AWG last night.
And now looking at it again it turns out I’m a fucking idiot and I worked out the voltage drop for 5m of 16AWG. 20AWG (hell, even 22!) would be fine over this distance.
For fuck’s sake. I’m going to write an app for this god help me.
As they say:
Measure TWICE, cut ONCE.
Measure twice (with something that’s not a shitty web app which assumes non-metric measurements) then cut once. I am going to take on a “LED Calculator” app as a project when I get back from the Burn.