Warfarin88

Not sure where the best place to ask this is.

Question is about wiring.

I know (or at least I think I know) that the length of a wire can reduce the current that flows along it before it gets to the end point. That's why you need a heavier gauge extension cord to run a high draw appliance without blowing fuses.

What's the mechanics here?

Can the gauge of a wire increase resistance?

To frame it terms of what I'm dealing with, if I used a relatively heavy (20ish) gauge wire to extend fan leads a short distance (around a 12-18 inches) could this create enough resistance that a higher watt fan wouldn't power up?

I've troubleshot all of my wiring, and everything mechanically is sound. If I don't use the leads, the controller will power the higher wattage fan. If I use a lower wattage fan, the controller will power the fans with the leads I made.

I'm trying to figure out why the leads don't work with the higher powered fans, and what I might be able to do to fix it.

Thanks a ton in advance for any assistance!

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Locool676

You have your gauges mixed up, smaller number= bigger wire. 20 gauge is not heavy duty.
As for your question, no. Resistance really shows at great lengths, I'd say about 10 M, but that's just a guess.

You're problem is a mystery to me, but maybe you could take some pictures to show how you did it.
Possibly, you could oh messed something up with the big fan, or the controller could be at fault here.

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l V l

I wouldn't say the wire itself is the thing that has more resistance with length... I would say the length just increases the amount of things getting in the way... Examples being the air around it, things that it touches, metals near it, etc etc... If the wire was floating in pure space, electricity should in theory not go down (current wise) from one end to other.


PS: Sorry that my reply really does not help you...

Tyrker

The bigger the diameter (smaller the gauge) the less resistance. The longer it is the more resistance and depending on the material, temperature can either increase or decrease it.

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Warfarin88

Maybe this will help.



That's the fan contollers and what I did with them for mounting. Notice the set screw connections rather than a 3 pin for the outputs.

I made these out of 3pin splitters and 20ish gauge stranded wire from Radio Shack. The wire from radio shack was way way heavier than a standard fan wire. (heavy duty... relatively speaking)



When I plug a low amp fan into the rig, it works. When I plug a high amp fan into one of those controllers without the "heavy" gauge fan lead, it works. When I plug a high amp fan into the rig, it doesn't work.

Thanks for the responses so far.

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Warfarin88

I'm tracking. So technically, if anything, the much larger than standard wire size should offset the additional length, if anything. Right?

That's why I'm stumped why this isn't working.

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DuckieHo

Wire reistence calculator at the bottom of this page: http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm


Pull out a multimeter and check resistence/voltage/current.

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Warfarin88

Thanks, but that chart is just a bit over my head at first glance.

The multimeter I could do, if I had one. Where would I buy one of those if I'm in a podunk sorta town?

Radio Shack carry them?

(edit: yes, they do...)

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DuckieHo

Don't look at the chart... go to the bottom of the page. You can enter your values there. You're using a 12V DC source BTW.


A basic digital multimeter is $8-15 at Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Every PC enthusiast should have one!

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Warfarin88

Headed to the store.

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