Questions tagged [wiring]
How wires connect to terminals and to each other; coloring and organization schemes; appropriate wire selection and installation techniques
1,025
questions
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Using clothesline steel core wire rope for AC and DC
As I am currently in a war zone, I don't have many options for cabling.
I found this clothesline (steel core plastic wire rope) that appears to be one mm of diameter (steel core diameter.) 13 meters ...
76
votes
5
answers
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What is the name of these little plastic things that protect wires from being cut into by the sharp edges of a drilled hole?
What is the name of these little plastic things that protect wires from being cut into by the sharp edges of a drilled hole?
58
votes
2
answers
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What do solid/striped lines on a wire indicate?
What do solid or dashed lines on a wire indicate? Is there a difference between the solid and dashed indicators?
45
votes
5
answers
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Is the neutral wire considered safe?
If the neutral wire carries current, why do many people believe that it's safe? I've heard "You can touch the neutral wire/bar in the breaker box and not get shocked. Only the hot can hurt you." If ...
41
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6
answers
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Why does my circuit work on a breadboard, but not on a perfboard? I am new to soldering
I'm a total beginner when it comes to soldering, and recently I've been trying (and failing) to solder together a simple circuit I put together for a Raspberry Pi sensor.
Although it works fine on ...
40
votes
3
answers
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What's a schematic (compared to other diagrams)?
What's the difference between a schematic, a block diagram, a wiring diagram and a PCB layout?
Why do engineers want a schematic instead of a wiring diagram?
Where does Fritzing fit into this?
37
votes
2
answers
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What are those weird wires in the audio cables?
Trying to repair a headset cable, I discovered that it doesn't look at all like the “ordinary” cables I used to repair. I was expecting to see, inside the cable jacket, four wires, each one in a wire ...
29
votes
13
answers
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How can I wire a 9-position switch so that each position turns on one more LED than the one before?
I have a 9-way switch like this guy:
And I'm trying to figure out how I can turn on one LED with position 1, 2 with position 2, all the way up to all 9 in position 9.
Obviously I can repeat all the ...
28
votes
10
answers
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How do I power/wire something that is rotating constantly WITHOUT extra batteries?
So I want to make a Lazy Susan that is rotating constantly in one direction. I also want to have some other things on top such as neon signs, moving things, and etc. Problem is I want this to all run ...
22
votes
9
answers
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Why is the chassis used as ground in automotive electrical circuits
Automotive electronics generally use the metal chassis as the negative ground connector for the DC circuits. Obviously this saves something on wiring. Is there an electrical reason for this approach?
...
20
votes
6
answers
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How does earthing work when earth is dry?
Earthing is meant to provide reliable contact of an electric appliance to earth so that if there's an insulation fault current goes into earth instead of through a person's body. This requires ...
20
votes
3
answers
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Difference between maximum amps for chassis wiring and power transmission
I am putting together a test system that'll be carrying over 50Amps.
I need to rate the wires that will be powering the device under test and also querying voltages and signals on the device.
...
19
votes
8
answers
7k
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How is USB 3.2 still serial when there are so many data cables?
This is a very ignorant question, as I am just getting into wiring diagrams and trying to understand them, but look at this picture of usb-C with usb 3.2:
With 2 high speed data paths, plus the old ...
16
votes
10
answers
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Best practice in transmitting sensor analog signal over longer distances (approx. 100') -- in cost sensitive products for microcontrollers
I'm looking for best practices for transmitting an analog sensor signal over long distances to a microcontroller such as the Arduino running at 3.3v or 5v. Keeping costs low is imperative.
SPI and ...
15
votes
3
answers
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Can you identify this component?
This may be obvious to some, but not to me. I am an IC design engineer, as such I rarely do any practical work. This morning I had to fix some electronics which were custom made by a third party for ...
15
votes
3
answers
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What does it mean when there is a voltage difference between ground and neutral?
Between ground and hot there's approximately 120V as expected.
I had expected the voltage difference between ground and neutral to be 0v, but instead it's 0.4V. Why would this not be the case? Is ...
15
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3
answers
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KiCad: Some pads to solder wires on
I am working on a PCB for which I need external soldered wires. I made the whole PCB with al the traces on the front layer. Then, with 3 vias, I got to the back layer. Here I need to solder 3 wires to ...
15
votes
4
answers
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Why an electrician wiring error could make a PC's USB shield be at 120V when it should be grounded
I almost had a serious electrical accident last week when I was trying to use an oscilloscope to test out a circuit a student had built.
I had the scope plugged into a floor outlet, and the circuit ...
14
votes
4
answers
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How to best attach a wire to a switch without soldering?
I've got a switch like this one:
Now my (quite novice) question is: How do I best attach a wire to the connector without soldering, e.g. for quickly trying something out?
Right now I've folded the ...
14
votes
2
answers
6k
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Ring around wire on diagram
If this is a repeated question, please let me know. I'm a hobbyist electronics person, and ran across symbols on a diagram I didn't recognize. I've attached the image below:
What I'm trying to ...
13
votes
1
answer
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Wiring diagram for USB-C to USB-A cable?
I make USB cables (USB-A to Mini or Micro primarily), but don't have any experience with USB-C. I would like to create a cable that has a USB-A (2.0) connector on one end, and a USB-C connector on the ...
13
votes
3
answers
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What's the purpose of such weird wiring inside this smart card?
Here's a scan of a stripped MIFARE Ultralight smart card
That's some plastic film with (I assume aluminum) foil wiring acting as the antenna for both powering the chip and providing radio ...
12
votes
6
answers
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Are there any standard patterns for wiring a breadboard/solderboard? [closed]
My breadboard wiring is disorganized and this makes complex circuits hard to debug and so on.
Are there any standard rules for how to arrange the wiring?
Something like "always leave x holes between ...
12
votes
7
answers
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Lack of Earth wire
Electricity connections where I live don't have have earth wires, only live and neutral.
I don't have any problems with it but if I touch metal parts of any desktop computer, It does what coffee can ...
12
votes
6
answers
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Schuko plug wiring
Why it is not important where we connect our hot and neutral wire when connecting them to our Schuko plug? Is it because current flows in both directions?
It is only important that our ground wire is ...
12
votes
3
answers
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What does FG stand for?
I have an old 12V cooler master fan that I am converting into a fume extractor for soldering and am connecting it to a standard 12v computer power supply. I am trying to wire it and am confused about ...
11
votes
5
answers
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Designing home DC wiring
I've been thinking about this for a while.
Now that we have means to generating electricity in DC, what would it take to do a DC wiring for an house to work along the traditional AC wiring.
...
11
votes
5
answers
3k
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Anything special to consider when running a 12v "Bus" throughout my house?
I've recently begun playing a lot with tiny programmable computers/controllers (like the Raspberry Pi and the Arduino), and I'm planning to distribute several throughout my house as various sensors. ...
11
votes
4
answers
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Altium says my labels are floating
Been using Altium and multi sheet projects for a while.
My latest project involves a lot of signals so I'm trying to keep things tidy using lots of labels, ports, busses.
So I have a bus for enable ...
10
votes
4
answers
4k
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Why is this 3-way speaker wired this way?
I found a service manual of a pair of 3-way speakers that were part of a mini integrated stereo system. These are Sony SS-H77 speakers, which have served me very well back in the day.
Looking at the ...
10
votes
3
answers
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How is transition from three-phase distribution without neutral to three-phase consumption with neutral achieved?
A typical distribution grid supplies 6 or 10 kilovolts AC to a substation near the consumers. This is typically done with a three-phase line without neutral - just three wires going in parallel. Then ...
10
votes
2
answers
2k
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Wiring up a dolls house with LEDs and a 9V battery
I'm trying to wire up a dolls house that I've built for my daughter with 7x 3mm white LEDs (https://www.jaycar.co.nz/white-3mm-led-4300mcd-round-clear/p/ZD0142)
I'm powering it with a 9V battery and ...
10
votes
3
answers
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What is the difference in this specific breadboard wiring?
As an absolute layperson in electronics I just found out that an LED only lights up when connected like in figure 1 but not when connected like in figure 2. And I just don't get why?
I know an LED is ...
10
votes
2
answers
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What is this strange long wire for in a single induction cooking unit?
Tonight I dismantled one of those single induction hobs:
Inside there were two PCBs. The incoming mains was wired to the top left PCB, while the other contained all the low voltage components, plus ...
10
votes
1
answer
5k
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Does an ungrounded shielded cable shield at all?
Does a shielded cable provide any shielding if the shield isn't grounded? Would it be practically different than an unshielded cable?
9
votes
3
answers
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What is the name/purpose of this component?
I was wondering what is the role/purpose of the electric component in the red square.
This is the schematic of a 230V single phase induction motor.
What is also not clear to me are the connections on ...
9
votes
3
answers
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Splitting wires for newbies
I'm in the process of getting ready to build a car PC running Linux. One of the features I'd really like to incorporate is the ability to record car statistics from the sensors live using ODB2.
Due ...
9
votes
1
answer
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Wiring vs Arduino
What are the key differences between Wiring and Arduino?
What would you recommend?
8
votes
6
answers
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what size of copper wire can act as a 150A fuse?
If I would like to use a piece of copper wire as a 150A fuse, what size of wire should I use?
It doesn't have to be 150A very accurately, the parameters I need the wire to meet are:
it needs to ...
8
votes
4
answers
7k
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How to handle unused wire in cable
What is the best way to handle an unused wire inside of a cable.
Let's assume I've got a cable with 4 wires, only 3 of them are used.
I could connect the 4th wire at one end to ground, at both ends ...
8
votes
2
answers
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How can I fix these broken wires?
I have two CPU fans which have been damaged. In one the wires were separated in the middle, in the other they were separated at the solder contacts. I have very little soldering/wiring experience, how ...
8
votes
4
answers
4k
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Ethernet Without a Switch?
How do you wire up Ethernet electrically without a switch? An approximately equivalent phrasing of this question would be what is going on electrically inside an Ethernet Hub?
To clarify, I'm not ...
8
votes
1
answer
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How is pouring water addressed in high-voltage electric transport systems?
An electric train is typically powered with something like 1.5 kilovolts of direct current of something like 25 kilovolts of alternating current. In my experience electric device manufacturers charge ...
8
votes
1
answer
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Placement of signal, power and ground lines within a ribbon cable
Just a couple of assumptions before I start as this is a theoretical question
All signals are <1MHz digital signals
All signals are single ended, no differential pairs
The 3 power lines are +5V, -...
8
votes
2
answers
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How do I power a LCD Backlight inverter (got from a disasembled LCD screen) [closed]
I have two LCD Backlight Inverters lying around here and I want them to powerup without using any laptop part / motherboards.
I want to power it by using a simple power source, I have both AC and DC ...
7
votes
2
answers
2k
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No PSB pin on LCD?
I bought a Winstar 144x32 LCD (WG14432D) because it was cheap and it would be nice to do some experiments with it. The main problem with this LCD is that it has no (working) library for it.
I already ...
7
votes
2
answers
2k
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Need a Loud Electrical Component for Magnetic Lock
On our main front door at the Stack Exchange offices we have a glass door with a magnetic lock installed. As is common at offices, visitors can ring a doorbell and then our receptionist will press an ...
7
votes
4
answers
5k
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Best solution for compact wiring on stripboard
When transferring a circuit from breadboard to stripboard, I often struggle to manage the wiring; often it starts looking like an overgrown garden; the components inevitably start disappearing under ...
7
votes
4
answers
8k
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Can I wire a dimmer switch into a soldering iron?
So I have a really cheap soldering iron and a dimmer switch meant to be wall-mounted. The soldering iron has a standard, ungrounded cord. The dimmer switch has four wires: a green (for ground), a ...
7
votes
2
answers
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Power a circuit off USB the correct way
I'd like to properly power a gadget off USB (2.4A USB powerbank https://www.amazon.com/Anker-20100mAh-Portable-Charger-PowerCore/dp/B00X5RV14Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1512261941&sr=8-3) ...