Tips for working with Power on Larger Projects
So I’m rebuilding all of the electronics for my art car this year and I’ve discovered some things that have really made my life a lot better.
It has 14 5-meter long strands of LEDs running off of a 12v marine battery.
-
Wago 221 Lever-Nuts are your friend. Like (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017NQWGDC). If you need to connect 3 14-gauge wires (to go from strip to strip) then there’s nothing simpler. One wire goes to the next strip, one to the previous strip and one to the 12v -> 5v CPT converter.
-
Alibaba express is your friend if you have time. Amazon has way more stuff than you’d think and is incredibly fast.
-
If you want nice connectors Deutsch makes wonderful ones that are pretty affordable. For example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017RO5PY2. There are many clones (TE has a line that copies them) and they’re WAY higher quality than dealing with these BCP-style ones (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XHNQBI2).
-
Ratcheting strippers are AMAZING. This kind of thing works wonders for 12v (power) wires https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IYTCG6 and this sort of thing works wonderfully for smaller gauge wires (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R895YM). I slightly prefer a different one but it doesn’t have a label (other than to say that i’s swiss made).
-
ratcheting crimpers are amazing! I use https://www.amazon.com/IWISS-Terminal-Ratchet-AWG28-18-0-1-1-0MM²/dp/B017JU20Z6 for all of my small connectors and their bigger one (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0195VXA10) for 16 gauge wires.
-
Stanley ToughCases. Oh my god. You can drop them, bring them to burning man and stack them on your wall. Components don’t fall out. You can pull out the little yellow boxes while you’re working on a project and then put them back away. Life changing. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005QWYF
-
I’ve already raved about my othermill. If you are at all interested in learning to mill your own boards this is revolutionary. It’s like moving from dialup to ISDN. You can mill a board, test it out, debug, fix the design, mill a second (and third and fourth) board all in an evening (or morning in my case). I can’t be more pleased. There’s no way that I would have succeeded without it. If you’re still using breadboards (which I did for YEARS (being self-taught)) then please do your self a favor and learn eagle and start designing boards. It’s a step-function up in creativity and repeatability.