Jonathan Cude

Jonathan Cude

Active Member
I am trying to make the fusable link for the shunt on my dynon ammeter. They reccomend 26 ga wire to protect the 22 ga wire.

anyone know where to buy 26 ga wire?!?!

Thanks,
 
26ga aircraft wire is a pain to work with...it is just too small and fragile.

I tested multiple times 24ga in this application as a fusible link and it worked fine.
 
I, too, scrounged around for some tiny wire for the same application. Finally found some that I'd had all along -- scraps of servo trim wire bundles. Didn't occur to me to look for small wires in servo wires ...
 
Thanks for the quick replies. A solution has been found in record time!

Brantel, how did you test? Did you create a dead short with 12v on a test piece?
 
Sure did...I took my battery and made up a few sample links with the wire I had and dead shorted them to see what happend.

The link burns thru instantly and the protected wire does not even get warm.

Some people do not protect their shunt wires but there was no way I was not going to. A dead short on one of those leads could cause some major damage!

The suggestion to use trim servo cable wire is a good one. I forgot about that as it is 26ga as well. I did not have that when I did my FWF so it was not an option for me a the time.

Jonathan Cude said:
Thanks for the quick replies. A solution has been found in record time!

Brantel, how did you test? Did you create a dead short with 12v on a test piece?
Click to expand...
 
Awesome!

Thanks for the test report. That is great help and an interesting exception to the fusable link "rules" that the link needs to be 4 awg sizes smaller than the wire it protects.
 
For a fusible link, you want to cover the wire with a fiberglass insulation sleeve------no fire that way.
 
Normally I would follow the rules...I would not have done it without testing for myself to make sure it works. I even made sure my wire lengths were the same as they were going to be installed to make sure resistance did not play a part in success or failure of the link to burn thru.

Like Mike sez above...Always use the fiberglass sleeve on the link. When it pops, it burns up rapidly and the sleeve keeps all of that contained.

Jonathan Cude said:
Awesome!

Thanks for the test report. That is great help and an interesting exception to the fusable link "rules" that the link needs to be 4 awg sizes smaller than the wire it protects.
Click to expand...
 
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N8RV said:
I, too, scrounged around for some tiny wire for the same application. Finally found some that I'd had all along -- scraps of servo trim wire bundles. Didn't occur to me to look for small wires in servo wires ...
Click to expand...

You could also measure a single strand of some heavier gauge stranded wire you might have around. 26AWG is 0.0159" in diameter.
 
jjglennon said:
26 ga wire is the standard size wire used in RC airplanes. My hobby shop sells it.
John
Click to expand...

Doubt they sell Tefzel -- its probably PVC insulation (?). But, then again, does it matter for a fuse link? I suppose the small amount of toxic smoke generated will dissapate quickly, does it? :confused:
 
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