Friday,
May 2, 2003
by
Beckie-Anne Thain
We looked at several different
options for the conductors in our tether. We wanted to reduce
the voltage drop in the tether. We tried both copper and copper
clad aluminum. The thicker the wire, the lower the American
Wire Gauge (AWG) number, the lower the electrical resistance
and the more power conducted. The trade-off with using lower
AWG wire is typically decreased flexibility. We need a light,
flexible tether for getting in and out of tight spots. We will
use stranded wire which is more flexible than solid core wire.
Originally we were going to have two
12 AWG speaker wire conductors, but we realized that we would
be losing 2.43 volts. To measure this we used the voltage
drop calculator. Next, we doubled the tether to four
12 AWG conductors, but then our tether looked like a gigantic
hose. For our third design we put together eight 16 AWG conductors.
With this combination we were only dropping 1.5 volts but our
tether was still bulky. Then we put six 14 AWG conductors together,
the voltage drop was only 1.3 volts and it was a remarkably
flexible tether. This, we thought, was our answer.
The next day, however, we discovered
30 metres of 10 AWG stranded power wire—the last in the
province! This wire is incredibly flexible, a lot less expensive
than speaker wire, and our voltage drop is only 1.5 volts. This
was our answer. Our tether will include two lines of the power
wire, one coaxial cable, and one camera power cable.
Introduction
|
April
22, 2003 |
| November
25, 2002 |
April
28, 2003 |
| November
28, 2002 |
May
2, 2003 |
| December
5, 2002 |
May
12, 2003 |
| December
19, 2002 |
May
19, 2003 |
| January
23, 2002 |
May
26, 2003 |
| January
30, 2003 |
June
3, 2003 |
| February
13, 2003 |
June
10, 2003 |
| February
28, 2003 |
June
19, 2003 |
| March
7, 2003 |
June
20, 2003 |
| March
14, 2003 |
June
21, 2003 |
| March
20, 2003 |
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