Molex connectors

[Steven]

John Hertig wrote:

Interior insulation I specified was Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet and Gray (1 - 8 in resistor color code) for the 16 guage wires, and White with black stripe and green with black stripe for the 14 guage wires (AC common return and ground).

May I suggest you use solid green for one of the 14 gauge wires and something like red with black stripe instead of green for one of the 16 gauge wires? Consider that at some time you may get a helper and if he's used to electrical wiring at all, he's going to think "Green = Ground".

[John Hertig]

I also got a quote for a wire with 12 16 ga conductors; it is a bit cheaper than the mixed guage wire. I figure that we could tie 2 of the 16ga conductors together for the common return.

Anybody know if 2 16 ga conductors can carry as much current as 1 14 ga conductor? Any reason why tying 2 16 ga wires together would be a bad idea?

Per the above comment, I'm thinking of a color scheme for this wire of Brown, Brown with black stripe, Red, Red with black stripe, Orange, Orange with black stripe, Yellow, and Yellow with back stripe; these are for the individual signals. Then white and white with black stripe to be tied together for common return, and green and green with black stripe to be tied together for (optional) ground.

Looking closely at the 9 pin connectors (which don't make a ground practical), I find that the panel sockets have the pins sticking out (but protected from physical damage by the socket wall). The socket is big enough that one could fairly easily touch or short the pins which would not be good if they were live. The plug has the female pins recessed so it would be very difficult to accidently touch or short a live circuit on it. Since it would seem to be a poor idea from a safety standpoint to have 110v on pins which could be touched or shorted, I'd say that if you were going with the 9 pin connector, have your source (from the controller) be an inline plug (no inline panel mount is available). The 'source' end of your cord would be an inline socket and the 'load' end would be another inline plug. For the input to your 'plug box', either a panel mount socket or inline socket would work. If your 'plug box' has a passthrough, only an inline plug would continue this pattern. Using another panel mount would leave 110v pins which could be touched or shorted. The risk could be minimized by having a blank plug locked in there when it was not in use, but even that would still leave me nervous (but then I put my normal plug connections in zip lock bags to protect from getting wet).

Going with 14 pin connectors allows ground and the sockets have the female pins recessed. The plugs then have the pins 'exposed', but that is what we are used to since the only way to have them to be 'live' is to plug them into something and then they are not exposed any more. This is known as 'reverse sex' connectors. The price is comparable, the major cost of this would be a slight increase of size of the connectors (size 17 instead of size 13). In this case, your source would be a panel socket (perhaps even in parallel with normal power socket dangles) or an inline socket (instead of power dangles), the 'source' end of your cable would be an inline plug and the 'load' end of the cable would be an inline socket. The 'plug box' would have to be powered by an inline plug, but the passthrough could be either an inline or panel socket.

[John Hertig]

Sorry, it is 'Reverse Gender' rather than 'Reverse Sex'.

There appears to be a 'panel mount flange for plugs' available, which might allow panel mount of a plug. I don't know how user friendly this would be, since the locking ring would be on the panel rather than the cable. But it might provide additional layout options.

Lots of other neat accessories for this line of connectors, including seals, internal cable clamps, boots and right angle cable clamps. Probably overkill for this application though.

As for the metal vrs plastic plug box question, I found a plastic, 8 outlet power box at Targets for about $12. It has big plastic 'ears' on each end for cord managment, but these easily come off, leaving a smaller, black box. It looks like it would be easy to convert it for 8 individual circuits; the hot pins are on a common strip which could be cut between each outlet and individually powered. There would be no need to modify the return or ground circuits. There is even a 15 amp breaker in the box, which could be inserted into the return circuit if desired. Probably not to 'code', of course, but better than nothing and 'for free'.

[Steven]

John Hertig wrote:

There is even a 15 amp breaker in the box, which could be inserted into the return circuit if desired. Probably not to 'code', of course, but better than nothing and 'for free'.

Actually, putting the breaker in the return circuit would be worse than nothing. If the breaker were to trip, then 120 volts would appear on the return. If you were [properly] using polarized cords and C9 sockets, then this voltage could appear on the screw part of the bulbs.

So, for example, if it's wet outside, and this "neutral breaker", trips, so you go out and unscrew a bulb to test it, you could get zapped.

[John Hertig]

Ok, scratch that idea, just leave the breaker in the box (to seal the hole), unattached.

[John Hertig]

There does not appear to be any interest in this custom multi-conductor cable, so should I just get enough for my needs?

[John Hertig]

Bad news for multiple channel cord fans.

1) 16 AWG wire in a multi conductor cable of 12 or fewer conductors will carry up to 8 amps, which is fine for LOR controllers. However, even in a 9 conductor cable, 14 AWG is derated to carry only 13 amps, which is risky since each set of 8 channels can put out 15 amps collectively.

In 'free air', the current capacity of 14 AWG is 19 amps, so perhaps the running of a separate 14 AWG wire for return as shown above might be ok.

2) National Electrical Code (NEC 310.4) appears to prohibit running 2 conductors in parallel to increase current capacity. So my idea of using 2 16 AWG wires connected together for the common return appears not to be wise.

3) Found potential sources for all the parts and the cost computes to higher than anticipated. Buying most parts in quantity of 10 or less, with 1000' of wire, the cost per 50' set seems like it would be $127; this would be $254 per controller. This is with a detachable cord between the controller and plug box; if the 50' cord is hard wired into the plug box the cost per 50' set would be about $108. It's not the plugs, it's not the sockets, it's the cable clamps and the pins...

I'm giving up on it for now until I see what is available in cheap extension cords.

[cenote]

Been following these wire and plug threads for a while now. My two cents has come to the following conclusion:

The more someone tinkers with making cords more "efficient", the more it seems to cost. Comes down to how much your time is worth to you for set up and tear down. It seems to me that ever year, I am going to want to change things around in the yard, so making custom cords could present problems. I have about decided to make custom boxes for controllers, and just mount the old style screw terminals to the outside. Than just use crimp connectors on the ends of my cords.

I agree with buying 18g wire for small low draw runs, with a larger common, but keep the runs down to a minimum. My thought on the NEC ratings are that they are designed at 50-60% of capacity at a 100% draw. We are only using the wire mostly momentarily to switch on and off.

But for a side note...My boxes are still be planned on be mounted on my house under a eave to keep somewhat dry. And I am NOT an certified electrician.

[John Hertig]

Ok, I'll bite. How did you get 89 channels in 5 cords for $120?

[cenote]

John Hertig wrote:

Ok, I'll bite. How did you get 89 channels in 5 cords for $120?

18/24 sprinkler wire?