I am looking at this very thin copper wire. It does not have much description other than the physical dimensions. What's the maximum current capacity of these wires? I guess they are not for power wiring (~ 200mA)?
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2\$\begingroup\$ Not only are they pretty high resistance, so lots of voltage drop, but 0.1mm wire is very flimsy and will break easily. Suggest a minimum of about 0.25mm (AWG 30) unless you have a really good reason to use very fine wire. \$\endgroup\$– Spehro PefhanyDec 29, 2014 at 19:22
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2 Answers
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That all depends on the length.
There's two factors to consider with wires:
- The self-heating caused by the current
- The voltage drop caused by the resistance
Number 1 is purely a factor of the wire diameter. Number 2 also has to take into account the length of the wire as well.
I find this table is a good reference: http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm
0.1mm is roughly 38 AWG. So for that, for "chassis" wiring (i.e., short runs between boards, switches, lights, etc) the current limit is 130mA. For longer "power" runs, the limit is a mere 22.8mA.
The resistance of the wire is around 659.6Ω per 1000 feet, so about 0.659Ω per foot.
That kind if wire is usually used for winding your own inductors, transformers, or electromagnets. It's not often used for chassis wiring without an incredibly good reason.
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\$\begingroup\$ Thanks, I just need thin copper wires to debug my boards. I will get a more capable wire. \$\endgroup\$– Adam LeeDec 29, 2014 at 21:03
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Your question is related with magnet enameled wires, and not house installation wires. Formal NEC does not dealling with fine magnet wires. There are many tables recommended this or that current based on a current capacity, but no one explain the choice of this J (A/cm^2 or inch^2). Voltage drop and consiquently length of conductor, confuse more the designer and finally cancelling when thermal equation solved. So length has a limited meaning on current capacity of a conductor.
A basic thermodynamic analysis it is the best way to calculate the ampacity of a wire. The remaining temperature on the wire is the generated heat minus the convected or emissed one. IEC recommends a maximum rise of 30 degr. Celc, above ambient allowing a good safety margin.
Bellow it is a graph made by me for the AWG 35, which is 0.143mm bare diameter (yours is 0.1mm i.e. AWG 38), assuming natural cooling convection (no fans etc), suspended vertically in air (not coiled). Ambient temperature is taken 25degr Celc. but recommend 35 for real designs.
The blue curve it is for bare wire capacity and purple is the current capacity with a typical magnet wire formavar insulation. You can ask the reason of this.
Once again this based in theory and valid for DC current ONLY, but it is agood start since you can not find souch data from manufacturers.
