I have a saber I installed that the 22AWG wire for Batt Negative came off of the battery tab and that I’ll be trying to fix soon. It’s a keystone tab, so I assume trying to remove the tab to make the repair is not the most viable option (without tearing up the chassis).
So, I’m going to try reattaching the wire in-situ and was wondering if it would be possible to use two 28AWG wires on the negative tab to Batt - on the board? With the tight space in the already installed chassis (a One Replicas EEDK Dooku saber) I thought two 28AWG wires would be easier to maneuver around. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
It depends on what kind of current your setup is pulling. Those two 28awg would only be able to safely handle about 1.4 amps. That’s not usually enough. If you could change them for a pair of 24awg wires you get closer the the amp rating of a single 20. Sometimes the space saving can be worth it.
Splitting across two wires is totally fine electrically. Most of us already follow that principle when bridging LED 2 and LED 3 for the blade to share the load on the MOSFETS.
That was my first thought. I was just curious if two 28s could be used instead just because of it being easier to fish them through the tight spaces. I had thought about splicing a 28awg to a 22awg and using the 28awg to pull the 22awg through, then solder the 22awg to the tab and either splice it with the 22awg on the board for Batt - already, or just replace it by connecting the new 22awg to the other Batt - pad on the board. I think I’ll probably try that.
That was pretty much the reason I didn’t jump to this immediately. I had been using a single 22awg for bridging LED 2 and 3 when I first started installing sabers. Then, when I found out that we could use two 28awg wires for LED 2 and 3 to the neopixel connector I started doing that. That’s what led me to consider at least the possibility that it might work for Batt - as well, but I wasn’t 100% sure that they’d be able to carry the current needed by the board. So, I’ll try repairing in-situ with a 22awg wire first, and go from there if it doesn’t work.
Your board itself doesn’t need much current. I don’t recall what the exact amount is. So if you’re within current limit for the neopixel connector you could be close enough for the small increase of the board… generally go higher than I need to. If you haven’t measured your current draw, you might want to do that and that will settle the question. Don’t forget accent pixels if you have them…
Thanks for that. I was able to reattach the original 22awg wire to the negative battery tab to bring the saber back to life! So, it was a successful surgery. Thanks again to both of you for your insights and advice.