Making a power cable
 

After a long hiatus due to health issues, I am back to trying to get my JVC GY-500 into operation. (The plus side of the long layoff is that I now have three scripts and a collaboration concept that knocks me out.) The last piece of my particular puzzle is the link between my camera and my battery... or batteries, thanks to Syrotech in Winnnipeg. I just need to know the wire gauge for the cable. The camera draws 18W in use, and the batteries provide 12V. The cable is going to be 6' coil cord. I'm sort of leaning to AWG 18, but I don't know if that will be appropriate. Anyway, belated thanks to everybody that offered help and encouragement in the past, and, hopefully, I'll be able to post good news... once my JVC gets reliably juiced.

Re: Making a power cable
 

Hi, Roy.................

Glad to have you back.

18 Awg should be more than adequate over 6' with a 18W load at 12 Volts.


CS

Re: Making a power cable
 

18 gauge (when I looked it up) equates to our .75mm2 cable, which seems a bit light. I don't really mean in current terms, because that's fine, just a bit more fragile. The cable that JVC supplied between the PSU and the camera was even smaller, and I chopped it by trapping it a couple of times. The curly cable I use has 1.5mm2 conductors - which is much bigger - your 16 gauge - which is much stronger, mechanically.

Re: Making a power cable
 

Thanks, Chris and Paul. I hadn't actually considered the physical strength of the cable at all. Being somewhat of a klutz, I think I will go with the heavier cable. But I feel a sense of personal triumph after literally hours of work, googling and calculating, in coming up with the AWG 18 wire!
This 'technical' stuff is fun.

Re: Making a power cable
 

In high school electronics class, I still remember the formula:
Watts= volts x amps. So in your case, 18=12/x, 1.5 amps is flowing through your wire. Wires are usually rated in how much current or amps it can handle. 18 gauge wire is rated around 10 amps, so you're well under it's capacity.