Ultra flex silicone wire from where please?

[T i m]

Hi All,

I'm looking for what could be 'fairly special' ultra flexible silicone insulated stranded copper cable. The red / black stuff like you see on decent test meter leads etc.

I've opened a bit up and it's made of seven 'bunches' of hair_fine wire and I've carefully counted one bunch as having ~180 strands (and me needing better eyes and a life)! Assuming all 7 bunches have the same number of strands that would be 1260 or so.

The actual strands are ~.04 mm (digital vernier) dia each and are plain copper (not plated). [1]

The other sheath is ~4mm o/d and it looks like it is white with just the outside coloured (red or black in this instance).

I've done a bit of Googling and directly checked with the usual suspects (RS / Farnell) but haven't found anything identical (but could well have missed it of course).

Any supplier come to mind please?

Cheers, T i m

[1] I calculate that with a csa of around 1.5 sq mm although it looks more like 2.5+, probably because it's so stranded.

[Andy Burns]

RS 462-6548 red 332 strand 1.0mm^2 (462-6554 for black)

or 462-6627 red 462 strand 2.5mm^2 (462-6649 for black)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Maplin sell silicone insulated test lead by the metre. I'd expect RS and CPC to do so too.

Or these people:-

[T i m]

Thanks for that but how do you get their search box to accept any of those codes?

We are talking here aren't we?

if the cable isn't *exactly* the same construction as the original (or at least offer the same electrical properties) I'm not sure it won't affect the calibration of this unit (IBT-Gold battery capacity tester).

One of the two ~1ft test leads started to fail internally, I shortened it by about an inch and although it works the calibration has gone way out (10Ah measured on a 7Ah battery etc).

They do a calibrated replacement lead / clip / sticker set but I was trying to avoid the cost of that (mainly in the spirit of d-i-y) if at all possible.

Cheers, T i m

[Andy Burns]

Strange the search box usually accepts their part numbers, I hadn't tried those codes and you're right it rejects them

Ah well, not quite up to your thousand odd strands, try the spec sheet

2 for the silicone ones.

If the device is that critical, doesn't it have any calibration? what's the resistance of 1" of 2.5mm^2 copper, about half a milliohm?

[T i m]

Thanks for the above.

I'm afraid not and why they supply calibrated lead sets. ;-(

Probably, however I've seen for myself what difference 1" can make (ooo missus). They mention the use of 'frequency' on their site, maybe that has more to do with it (some sort of tuned rather than pure resistive length)?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

above has got the closest so far.

Don't get me wrong, this might actually make little difference, once I replace the leads and 'calibrate' them to give me a reasonable reading (like 7Ah on a new 7Ah SLA battery, not 3Ah pre cutting out the partly damaged section then 10Ah after!).

Hence the ideal of replacing like with like etc.

Cheers, T i m

[The Natural Philosopher]

The model car racing boys use this a lot.

I normally get some at model shows.

The guys seem to have most of what looks suitable

[T i m]

I know we do and I've already spoken to my local shop re what they have in stock (and was planning to get some from them when I go past next). However, they had little info on it and for some reason were unwilling to count the strands for me? ;-)

Me to, for 'stock', but I'm out right now (and missed the ME this year).

In fact this is the nearest strand_count_wise I've see so far ...

if what they describe as 'diameter' is the outer diameter of the sheath then that's pretty well spot on as well.

Cheers, T i m

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yup. Its mighty stuff to solder, Has an infinite capacity for wicking it all up, Use a BIG iron.