Where to find good 2-conductor power wire?

Posted by: siberia37

Where to find good 2-conductor power wire? - 08/11/2011 20:10

I am having the hardest time finding black 2-conductor power wire that I would like to use for powering a LED tail light on my Bicycle from the front dynamo hub. I basically want a wire that has two conductors inside but is encased in a black jacket of some sort and is fairly flexible. I don't want to run two seperate wires to the back of the bike because it doesn't look as clean- I don't like ribbon style wire either. All the normal electronic places I check don't have anything like this- Sparkfun, AllElectronics, BGMicro. I checked Digikey but the order quantities are too much. I just need about 10 feet of cable, not a 1000 ft spool. Anyone have any ideas?
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: Where to find good 2-conductor power wire? - 08/11/2011 20:20

try Monoprice or DeepSurplus.

I'd just get a cheap RCA cable of the correct length and cut the ends off. $1.50 at DeepSurplus, plus they throw in a bag of Skittles, so it's virtually free smile
Posted by: siberia37

Re: Where to find good 2-conductor power wire? - 08/11/2011 20:41

Originally Posted By: JBjorgen
try Monoprice or DeepSurplus.

I'd just get a cheap RCA cable of the correct length and cut the ends off. $1.50 at DeepSurplus, plus they throw in a bag of Skittles, so it's virtually free smile


But RCA cable is basically like big ribbon cable. I want cable that looks like the iPhone charge cable, but black and preferably only two conductors on the inside. It seems impossible to find anything like it though. Ok maybe headphone mono patch cable would be passable but I think it usually has one insulated conductor wire surrounded by non-insulated ground wire on the inside of the outer jacket, which is annoying to work with.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Where to find good 2-conductor power wire? - 08/11/2011 21:16

Radio Shack? Home Depot? Lowes?
Posted by: mlord

Re: Where to find good 2-conductor power wire? - 08/11/2011 21:30

Black electrical tape wrapped around random/speaker/telephone wires?
Black heat-shrink tubing around random/speaker/telephone wires?
Posted by: siberia37

Re: Where to find good 2-conductor power wire? - 08/11/2011 21:47

Originally Posted By: mlord
Black electrical tape wrapped around random/speaker/telephone wires?
Black heat-shrink tubing around random/speaker/telephone wires?


All would work but would be kind of ugly and would require a lot of heat-shrink. I will go by Lowes I guess, it looks like Landscape Low-voltage wire might work, although I think it's ribbon-like cable where two cables are basically melded together.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Where to find good 2-conductor power wire? - 09/11/2011 00:28

Heat shrink tubing is commonly sold (around here, at least) in 1m lengths. I doubt that a bicycle would require more than two of those.

Cheers