Soldering to perfboard - where to find tinned copper wire? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Moriambar
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2019, 10:19:05 pm
content: Hi there.I have a couple of project that I'd like to build on perfboard, as simple as that.The problem is (because I am stupid, probably) that I seem not able to find the kind of rigid tinned copper wire (without plastic shielding I mean) that you always see on online videos. Those seem nice to use (they can be bent into place, and easily soldered), while I'm currently stuck to a "wire wrapping cable" 30 AWG, which is ok for bridging over connections (due to the plastic shielding) but is flimsy and is a bit of pain (and smell) to solder.I actually do not know what to search for (and where: do I go to digikey, or stick to aliexpress?) since I got nothing.Can anyone please help?Cheers

author: piguy101
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2019, 10:33:53 pm
content: I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Do you mean magnet wire?https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/sparkfun-electronics/PRT-11363/1568-1088-ND/5230957This is the stuff with an enamel insulation that can often burn away easily with a soldering iron. No stripping necessary.

author: Moriambar
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 17, 2019, 10:41:16 pm
content: Quote from: piguy101 on February 17, 2019, 10:33:53 pmNo, I mean "tinned copper wire", not enameled… like you can see in the attached image from a Great Scott! video on youtube.those vertical bars.EDIT: thanks for your idea. Of course it is good, but it's not exactly what I was searching for, and I'll use it if nothing else pops up!

author: tsman
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2019, 11:07:59 pm
content: If you search for "tinned copper wire" you'll get lots of results so I'm confused as to what you're looking for...

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2019, 11:08:46 pm
content: "bare tinned bus wire" or there about

author: GopherT
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 12:44:48 am
content: https://www.digikey.com/catalog/en/partgroup/bus-bar-wire/1907

author: sorin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 05:37:41 am
content: LAN cable.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 07:04:34 am
content: Quite odd, I can't find ANY on Aliexpress but you can get it on Taobao easily enough although mostly in large quantities, here's one in 10 meter lotshttps://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a21wu.12321156-tw.0.0.3fdf3ad4vGNVEf&id=563550846215I'm guessing the price shown is per meter with minimum 10m but it's not entirely clear.Searched for: 裸镀锡铜线

author: exe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 07:44:25 am
content: I bought tinned single-core wires from rs-online. Try finding it here:https://nl.rs-online.com/web/c/cables-wires/wire-single-core-cable/. But I think you can just buy an insulated wire and make it uninsulated.I also use my multicore AWG22 wire. I remove insulation, solder strands together, and use it.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 08:08:01 am
content: Quote from: exe on February 18, 2019, 07:44:25 amYears ago, I bought a bag of various colors solid core wire, Velleman brand, that was supposed to be for breadboarding. It turned out to be a bit too small for use in breadboards, but under the insulation (which slides off very easily) is tinned solid copper wire. So now I have a lifetime supply of wire for perfboard circuits or whatever.

author: Cnoob
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 09:27:00 am
content: I found some solid core insulated wire at CPC- Farnell.https://cpc.farnell.com/search?st=solid%20core%20tinned%20wireUninsulated tinned copper wire.https://cpc.farnell.com/search?st=tinned%20copper%20wireThe insulated is cheaper which I prefer to use. If it's for high current use then uninsulated maybe more suitable.

author: StillTrying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 09:44:03 am
content: I use old 4 x solid cores wired telephone cable, with the option to leave the insulation on for longer lengths, I've collected loads of it over the years!

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 11:37:24 am
content: It is traditionally called "Tinned Copper Wire" in Oz, but it seems it has other names in various countries.One is "fuse wire" (when you look at TCW, it looks exactly like the stuff we used to keep a card of in the "meter box" for repairing manually loaded fuse holders, albeit of a larger variety of sizes.)

author: BurningTantalum
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 01:18:12 pm
content: I too have been looking for this product recently. I have had a reel of it for decades and thought that it would 'see me out' but sadly I am coming to the end of it. I always knew it as 'BTC' (bright tinned copper) in the UK. I assumed that I would find reels of it from China but it doesn't seem to be available except by the metre in rolls and is not particularly cheap.Somehow I have soldered a kilogram of the stuff in the past few decades...BT

author: Moriambar
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 01:19:22 pm
content: Quote from: BurningTantalum on February 18, 2019, 01:18:12 pmRight? I tried "tinned copper wire" on ebay/aliexpress but without any success too...

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 04:06:55 pm
content: Here is a Mouser link. I see you're in Italy, but maybe it will help with searching.All Products > Wire & Cable > Hook-up Wire > Insulation = Nonehttps://www.mouser.com/Wire-Cable/Hook-up-Wire/_/N-5ggsZ1yzvvqx?P=1yzp052

author: Audioguru
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 06:22:59 pm
content: I bought two inexpensive rolls of tinned copper wire in two sizes about 30 years ago and they will probably last another 30 years and outlive me. I bought them at a local electronic parts store (not Radio-Crap).I don't use much bare wire because I build all my circuits on strip-board (Vero-board) where the copper strips form most of the wiring.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 06:57:17 pm
content: Searched "Tinned copper wire" on eBay and found these:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tinned-Copper-Wire-500g-1SWG-to-26SWG/253758880337?epid=4020119150&hash=item3b15353a51:m:mR7dQMtCeWtjttxsbHOcfzw:rk:11:pf:0&var=553036546711https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tinned-copper-wire-2-Metres-5-Metres-10-Metres-SWG-Top-Quality/222620806559?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D56426%26meid%3D30a8038f47244deb9d5400e07f3ddd1b%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D9%26sd%3D253758880337%26itm%3D222620806559&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851These listings always have some suggested similar listings that you can take a look at.Or you can search for "tinned copper wire" and see what you can find.You can also do it the Ben Heck way, where you cut up an old IDE cable for prototyping.The IDE cables are pretty good, except when i get my hands on them and melt them with 12 amps.

author: Moriambar
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 07:13:18 pm
content: Quote from: Refrigerator on February 18, 2019, 06:57:17 pmthank you. It's ebay.it that was lacking it then I guess.Cheers

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 08:33:28 pm
content: Searching ebay (US) forsolid copper bus wire, finds exactly what you want in the second hit. Searching ebay.it for the same thing finds only international sellers. So I guess you're right, nobody in Italy is selling the stuff. You can also try Amazon, I found it there too. Just to reiterate what several others have said, you are looking for bus wire, no need to include "tinned". Commonly available solid copper bus wire is almost always tinned.

author: Moriambar
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 09:31:49 pm
content: Quote from: rdl on February 18, 2019, 08:33:28 pmThanks. The problem with being non-native speaker (and amateur) is that basically you have to understand what terms to search for.Cheers

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 10:06:41 pm
content: Quote from: Moriambar on February 18, 2019, 09:31:49 pmDon't worry, you'll learn all the terms eventually.I'm not a native English speaker myself and i still remember the days when i didn't know what the word "heatsink" meant.

author: KL27x
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 10:27:36 pm
content: An alternative is to just buy larger gauge kynar wire. It strips easy, where you want a bare wire. And you get insulated wire, too.

author: StillTrying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 10:50:59 pm
content: SlightlyOT.I'm often amazed at how good the written English is from non-native English speakers here, it's often well above average. Sometimes I notice a couple of words swapped around, but I do that myself,a lot of the time I would never know that English is not their native language.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 11:05:33 pm
content: I actually prefer to use solid enameled / transformer wire.With a temperature controlled iron at 400c to 450C you can burn through the laquer and solder it, while the rest of the wire stays insulated.This was quite a normal approach for prototypes a long time ago.Attached a picture with this technique.The plastic brackets used to be sold at hobby shops.But these brackets have not been available for a long time. The whole process is quite time consuming and not even well suited for prototypes. It's only usefull for ciruits which are manufactured in series of one, or when there is a hurry, or lack of money or knowledge to order a "proper" PCB.I've solderd together thens of circuits with wire like this, but never had access to the plastic brackets.I'm not even sure if the'yre a good idea anyway because the parallel wires increase inter-wire capacittance significantly and that is not a good thing with high-speed logic.Edit:Changed some syntax to avoid stamping on Clavuses and kicking hemorrhoids.

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 11:40:20 pm
content: I just strip the insulation from some ethernet cable to extract the 8 wires inside.However, must be actual copper solid core cable... some cheap ethernet cable these days can be copper clad aluminum, so when you bend the wire of such cable to go through hole, the copper may break off as well and it gets harder to solder.You can easily filter on Digikey to get such wires.Hookup wire, Solid core, tinner or annealed+tinner :https://www.digikey.com/products/en/cables-wires/single-conductor-cables-hook-up-wire/474?k=&pkeyword=&sv=0&pv82=24&sf=1&FV=ffe001da%2C1048000d%2C10480003&quantity=&ColumnSort=0&page=1&pageSize=25There's even a bus wire right there on the first page of results (uninsulated tinned copper ) :https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/belden-inc/8023-000100/BEL1031-100-ND/7006803Another trick is buying ribbon cables with solid core wires and cutting as many wires as you need from ribbon :https://www.digikey.com/products/en/cables-wires/flat-ribbon-cables/472?FV=ffe001d8%2C1480018&quantity=0&ColumnSort=1000011&page=1&pageSize=25

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2019, 11:50:03 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on February 18, 2019, 11:05:33 pmImagine having to troubleshoot that!

author: KL27x
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2019, 12:30:46 am
content: +1. It's beautiful, until the day it stops working.I hate conventional thru hole boards, period. Even when I use protoboard and thru hole parts, I always turn the copper side facing up, and I make all my jumpers topside, so I can see the components and connections at the same time.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2019, 05:52:12 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on February 18, 2019, 11:05:33 pmOr maybe today's youth doesn't use the plastic brackets because they stopped selling it before they ever got into electronics?Yeesh, we should be better here than to piss on kids who are enjoying our hobby.