Author Topic: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?  (Read 5306 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline MoriambarTopic starter

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 502
  • Country: it
Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« on: February 17, 2019, 10:19:05 pm »
Hi there.

I have a couple of project that I'd like to build on perfboard, as simple as that.
The problem is (because I am stupid, probably) that I seem not able to find the kind of rigid tinned copper wire (without plastic shielding I mean) that you always see on online videos. Those seem nice to use (they can be bent into place, and easily soldered), while I'm currently stuck to a "wire wrapping cable" 30 AWG, which is ok for bridging over connections (due to the plastic shielding) but is flimsy and is a bit of pain (and smell) to solder.

I actually do not know what to search for (and where: do I go to digikey, or stick to aliexpress?) since I got nothing.

Can anyone please help?

Cheers
 

Offline piguy101

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 51
  • Country: us
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2019, 10:33:53 pm »
I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Do you mean magnet wire?
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/sparkfun-electronics/PRT-11363/1568-1088-ND/5230957

This is the stuff with an enamel insulation that can often burn away easily with a soldering iron. No stripping necessary.
 

Offline MoriambarTopic starter

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 502
  • Country: it
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2019, 10:41:16 pm »
I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Do you mean magnet wire?
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/sparkfun-electronics/PRT-11363/1568-1088-ND/5230957

This is the stuff with an enamel insulation that can often burn away easily with a soldering iron. No stripping necessary.
No, I mean "tinned copper wire", not enameled… like you can see in the attached image from a Great Scott! video on youtube.
those vertical bars.

EDIT: thanks for your idea. Of course it is good, but it's not exactly what I was searching for, and I'll use it if nothing else pops up!
 

Offline tsman

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 599
  • Country: gb
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2019, 11:07:59 pm »
If you search for "tinned copper wire" you'll get lots of results so I'm confused as to what you're looking for...  :-//
 

Online langwadt

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4857
  • Country: dk
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2019, 11:08:46 pm »
"bare tinned bus wire" or there about
 

Offline GopherT

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 24
 
The following users thanked this post: Moriambar, Mourning Star

Offline sorin

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 279
  • Country: de
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2019, 05:37:41 am »
LAN cable. [emoji3]
 

Offline sleemanj

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3051
  • Country: nz
  • Professional tightwad.
    • The electronics hobby components I sell.
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2019, 07:04:34 am »
Quite odd, I can't find ANY on Aliexpress but you can get it on Taobao easily enough although mostly in large quantities, here's one in 10 meter lots https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a21wu.12321156-tw.0.0.3fdf3ad4vGNVEf&id=563550846215

I'm guessing the price shown is per meter with minimum 10m but it's not entirely clear.

Searched for: 裸镀锡铜线

~~~
EEVBlog Members - get yourself 10% discount off all my electronic components for sale just use the Buy Direct links and use Coupon Code "eevblog" during checkout.  Shipping from New Zealand, international orders welcome :-)
 
The following users thanked this post: Moriambar

Online exe

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 2647
  • Country: nl
  • self-educated hobbyist
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2019, 07:44:25 am »
I bought tinned single-core wires from rs-online. Try finding it here: https://nl.rs-online.com/web/c/cables-wires/wire-single-core-cable/ . But I think you can just buy an insulated wire and make it uninsulated :).

I also use my multicore AWG22 wire. I remove insulation, solder strands together, and use it.
 
The following users thanked this post: Moriambar

Offline rdl

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3667
  • Country: us
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2019, 08:08:01 am »
...
I think you can just buy an insulated wire and make it uninsulated :).
...

Years ago, I bought a bag of various colors solid core wire, Velleman brand, that was supposed to be for breadboarding. It turned out to be a bit too small for use in breadboards, but under the insulation (which slides off very easily) is tinned solid copper wire. So now I have a lifetime supply of wire for perfboard circuits or whatever.

 
The following users thanked this post: exe

Offline Cnoob

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 132
  • Country: gb
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #10 on: February 18, 2019, 09:27:00 am »
I found some solid core insulated wire at CPC- Farnell.
https://cpc.farnell.com/search?st=solid%20core%20tinned%20wire
Uninsulated tinned copper wire.
https://cpc.farnell.com/search?st=tinned%20copper%20wire


The insulated is cheaper which I prefer to use. If it's for high current use then uninsulated maybe more suitable.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2019, 09:55:30 am by Cnoob »
 

Offline StillTrying

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2850
  • Country: se
  • Country: Broken Britain
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #11 on: February 18, 2019, 09:44:03 am »
I use old 4 x solid cores wired telephone cable, with the option to leave the insulation on for longer lengths, I've collected loads of it over the years!
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 
The following users thanked this post: SeanB

Offline vk6zgo

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7855
  • Country: au
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2019, 11:37:24 am »
It is traditionally called "Tinned Copper Wire" in Oz, but it seems it has other names in various countries.
One is "fuse wire" (when you look at TCW, it looks exactly like the stuff we used to keep a card of in the "meter box" for repairing manually loaded fuse holders, albeit of a larger variety of sizes.)
 

Offline BurningTantalum

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 365
  • Country: au
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #13 on: February 18, 2019, 01:18:12 pm »
I too have been looking for this product recently. I have had a reel of it for decades and thought that it would 'see me out' but sadly I am coming to the end of it. I always knew it as 'BTC' (bright tinned copper) in the UK. I assumed that I would find reels of it from China but it doesn't seem to be available except by the metre in rolls and is not particularly cheap.
Somehow I have soldered a kilogram of the stuff in the past few decades...
BT
 

Offline MoriambarTopic starter

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 502
  • Country: it
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2019, 01:19:22 pm »
I too have been looking for this product recently. I have had a reel of it for decades and thought that it would 'see me out' but sadly I am coming to the end of it. I always knew it as 'BTC' (bright tinned copper) in the UK. I assumed that I would find reels of it from China but it doesn't seem to be available except by the metre in rolls and is not particularly cheap.
Somehow I have soldered a kilogram of the stuff in the past few decades...
BT
Right? I tried "tinned copper wire" on ebay/aliexpress but without any success too...
 

Offline rdl

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3667
  • Country: us
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #15 on: February 18, 2019, 04:06:55 pm »
Here is a Mouser link. I see you're in Italy, but maybe it will help with searching.

All Products > Wire & Cable > Hook-up Wire > Insulation = None

https://www.mouser.com/Wire-Cable/Hook-up-Wire/_/N-5ggsZ1yzvvqx?P=1yzp052
 
The following users thanked this post: Moriambar

Offline Audioguru

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1507
  • Country: ca
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #16 on: February 18, 2019, 06:22:59 pm »
I bought two inexpensive rolls of tinned copper wire in two sizes about 30 years ago and they will probably last another 30 years and outlive me. I bought them at a local electronic parts store (not Radio-Crap).
I don't use much bare wire because I build all my circuits on strip-board (Vero-board) where the copper strips form most of the wiring.
 

Offline Refrigerator

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1593
  • Country: lt
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #17 on: February 18, 2019, 06:57:17 pm »
Searched "Tinned copper wire" on eBay and found these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tinned-Copper-Wire-500g-1SWG-to-26SWG/253758880337?epid=4020119150&hash=item3b15353a51:m:mR7dQMtCeWtjttxsbHOcfzw:rk:11:pf:0&var=553036546711

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tinned-copper-wire-2-Metres-5-Metres-10-Metres-SWG-Top-Quality/222620806559?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D56426%26meid%3D30a8038f47244deb9d5400e07f3ddd1b%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D9%26sd%3D253758880337%26itm%3D222620806559&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

These listings always have some suggested similar listings that you can take a look at.
Or you can search for "tinned copper wire" and see what you can find.
You can also do it the Ben Heck way, where you cut up an old IDE cable for prototyping.
The IDE cables are pretty good, except when i get my hands on them and melt them with 12 amps.  >:D
I have a blog at http://brimmingideas.blogspot.com/ . Now less empty than ever before !
An expert of making MOSFETs explode.
 
The following users thanked this post: Moriambar

Offline MoriambarTopic starter

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 502
  • Country: it
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #18 on: February 18, 2019, 07:13:18 pm »
Searched "Tinned copper wire" on eBay and found these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tinned-Copper-Wire-500g-1SWG-to-26SWG/253758880337?epid=4020119150&hash=item3b15353a51:m:mR7dQMtCeWtjttxsbHOcfzw:rk:11:pf:0&var=553036546711

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tinned-copper-wire-2-Metres-5-Metres-10-Metres-SWG-Top-Quality/222620806559?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D56426%26meid%3D30a8038f47244deb9d5400e07f3ddd1b%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D9%26sd%3D253758880337%26itm%3D222620806559&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

These listings always have some suggested similar listings that you can take a look at.
Or you can search for "tinned copper wire" and see what you can find.
You can also do it the Ben Heck way, where you cut up an old IDE cable for prototyping.
The IDE cables are pretty good, except when i get my hands on them and melt them with 12 amps.  >:D

thank you. It's ebay.it that was lacking it then I guess.

Cheers
 

Offline rdl

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3667
  • Country: us
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #19 on: February 18, 2019, 08:33:28 pm »
Searching ebay (US) for solid copper bus wire, finds exactly what you want in the second hit. Searching ebay.it for the same thing finds only international sellers. So I guess you're right, nobody in Italy is selling the stuff. You can also try Amazon, I found it there too. Just to reiterate what several others have said, you are looking for bus wire, no need to include "tinned". Commonly available solid copper bus wire is almost always tinned.
 
The following users thanked this post: Moriambar

Offline MoriambarTopic starter

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 502
  • Country: it
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #20 on: February 18, 2019, 09:31:49 pm »
Searching ebay (US) for solid copper bus wire, finds exactly what you want in the second hit. Searching ebay.it for the same thing finds only international sellers. So I guess you're right, nobody in Italy is selling the stuff. You can also try Amazon, I found it there too. Just to reiterate what several others have said, you are looking for bus wire, no need to include "tinned". Commonly available solid copper bus wire is almost always tinned.
Thanks. The problem with being non-native speaker (and amateur) is that basically you have to understand what terms to search for.

Cheers
 

Offline Refrigerator

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1593
  • Country: lt
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #21 on: February 18, 2019, 10:06:41 pm »
Searching ebay (US) for solid copper bus wire, finds exactly what you want in the second hit. Searching ebay.it for the same thing finds only international sellers. So I guess you're right, nobody in Italy is selling the stuff. You can also try Amazon, I found it there too. Just to reiterate what several others have said, you are looking for bus wire, no need to include "tinned". Commonly available solid copper bus wire is almost always tinned.
Thanks. The problem with being non-native speaker (and amateur) is that basically you have to understand what terms to search for.

Cheers

Don't worry, you'll learn all the terms eventually.
I'm not a native English speaker myself and i still remember the days when i didn't know what the word "heatsink" meant.
I have a blog at http://brimmingideas.blogspot.com/ . Now less empty than ever before !
An expert of making MOSFETs explode.
 

Offline KL27x

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4108
  • Country: us
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #22 on: February 18, 2019, 10:27:36 pm »
An alternative is to just buy larger gauge kynar wire. It strips easy, where you want a bare wire. And you get insulated wire, too.
 

Offline StillTrying

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2850
  • Country: se
  • Country: Broken Britain
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #23 on: February 18, 2019, 10:50:59 pm »
Slightly OT.
I'm often amazed at how good the written English is from non-native English speakers here, it's often well above average. Sometimes I notice a couple of words swapped around, but I do that myself, :)  a lot of the time I would never know that English is not their native language.
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 
The following users thanked this post: tooki

Online Doctorandus_P

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4004
  • Country: nl
Re: Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire?
« Reply #24 on: February 18, 2019, 11:05:33 pm »
I actually prefer to use solid enameled  / transformer wire.
With a temperature controlled iron at 400c to 450C you can burn through the laquer and solder it, while the rest of the wire stays insulated.
This was quite a normal approach for prototypes a long time ago.
Attached a picture with this technique.
The plastic brackets used to be sold at hobby shops.
But these brackets have not been available for a long time. The whole process is quite time consuming and not even well suited for prototypes. It's only usefull for ciruits which are manufactured in series of one, or when there is a hurry, or lack of money or knowledge to order a "proper" PCB.
I've solderd together thens of circuits with wire like this, but never had access to the plastic brackets.
I'm not even sure if the'yre a good idea anyway because the parallel wires increase inter-wire capacittance significantly and that is not a good thing with high-speed logic.

Edit:
Changed some syntax to avoid stamping on Clavuses and kicking hemorrhoids.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2019, 02:15:29 am by Doctorandus_P »
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf