Electronics > Beginners

Can anyone help me to understand wire gauge?

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LektroiD:
I've been confused by this for years, and unfortunately there's barely any youtube tutorials that seem to explain it. It's a real mystery...

How do I find the correct thickness of wire for my projects? In the old days I would go into my local Tandy store and see the physical thickness of the wire available and buy what looked right for whatever application I was using it in. But now everything is online, and even with photos, it's hard to tell the thickness without having it in your hand. I know there is AWG, SWG, but the last ones I bought seem to relate to nothing, it just says 7/0.2 ...What AWG is this???

this for example

I would like to buy some wire a few gauges thicker than my 7/0.2 as the 7/0.2 wire I have does not look ideal to run 12V at 2A. At the same time, I don't want to buy something too thick that won't fit into my power connectors

NivagSwerdna:
The linked data sheet... https://www.rapidonline.com/pdf/01-0400e.pdf suggests you can squeeze 2A through it.

https://www.canford.co.uk/Technical/Article/MetricAWGWireSizeEquivalents for your 7/0.2 has a row for .22mm2 CSA....

7 strands... 0.2mm diameter... CSA=7xPI*(0.2/2)^2 = .22mm2 CSA

Zero999:
Here's a table showing the diameter and cross-sectional area vs AWG. It also lists the ampacity, but this isn't easy to calculate. It depends on the maximum allowable voltage drop, temperature rise and how well thermally insulated the cable is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge

C:
You need to think of wire as a resistor.
There is a specification that states the resistance per length.
As wire gets larger the resistance is lower.
What the wire is made out of makes a difference in the resistance.

You are selecting wire size so that you do not have too much voltage drop & not create to much heat.

For example a longer extension cord should be larger wire to keep from having more voltage drop at the load's current.

Then for stranded wire, you have a specification for how many strands are used. The more strands the more flexible the wire, the more flexing it can stand before failure.

goldfinger:

See at link the translation table between AWG, imperial and metric.
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.engineeringtoolbox.com/amp/awg-wire-gauge-d_731.html

At 12v 2A a AWG of 16-18 is more than enough for any reasonable length that isn’t a huge current so you don’t need more than that.




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