RTD extension wire

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Dave258

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Does anyone have or know of a place I can get extension wire for an rtd without having to buy 25 feet of it?
Can I just use regular wire from radio shack? I need about 6 more feet.

Thanks
 
After thinking about it, I doubt I would be able to splice to add to the current wire, so I guess I would need about 10 feet to run totally new wire.
Would the radio shack wire work, or do I need to spring the 30 or so bucks for 25 feet?
 
I'm not sure what radio shack wire you're referring to, but I hacked up an old Cat 5 cable I had lying around to extend my RTD's. It's thin, and not the easiest to work with, but I have about 300' of it lying around in lengths from 6' to 25', so I figured why not. Another option would be an old telephone cord. The Cat 5 has a maximum current rating >500mA per conductor, so that's not an issue. Make sure that you add something to strengthen the cord, though, cause it's easy to break if you trip/catch something on it.
 
I'm not sure what radio shack wire you're referring to, but I hacked up an old Cat 5 cable I had lying around to extend my RTD's. It's thin, and not the easiest to work with, but I have about 300' of it lying around in lengths from 6' to 25', so I figured why not. Another option would be an old telephone cord. The Cat 5 has a maximum current rating >500mA per conductor, so that's not an issue. Make sure that you add something to strengthen the cord, though, cause it's easy to break if you trip/catch something on it.

I meant just buying 20 or 22 guage wire at radio shack, but Thanks for the idea on the Cat 5. I have plenty of that and phone cord.
I will go that route!

I am assuming that instead of splicing it, it is better to just un-solder the current wire, and start fresh with the new.

Thanks again.
 
From Auber InstrumentsL

1. What can I use to extend my RTD wire?

You should use regular copper wire for the RTD sensor connection. The only requirement is that the wire should not be thinner than 26 Ga.
 
Cat6 is 23Gu and Cat5 is 24Gu, both are twisted copper. You should be fine using these.
 
Communications cable (cat5, phone, etc...) is probably a good idea, because it is twisted pair. Use two matching wires (ie. green and green stripe...etc) The twisting helps remove noise pickup (at-least this is how it works in the systems I work with).
 
RTD's are typically resistance devices used to show a temperature. Before lengthening this check the resistance between the wires and record it. Then use the same or slightly larger gauge wire then what is there now. You can splice the wires but I suggest twisting them then soldering. You need to keep the resistance as close as you can to the original. Depending on if there is a calibration feature you might be able to calibrate the device with the additional resistance. If you are only adding 6 feet it's probably not going to be an issue.
 
I bought one of the liquid tight RTD sensors from auberins. It comes with 6' wire but I need to extend it to about 15', so I emailed them asking if I could use the Cat 5 cable I have laying around to do so. They said it wouldn't be any problem at all.
 
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