flexwatt connection ideas

Would this idea I had work?(ill use pictures from PAINT to make it easier to see) Lets say I have a rack, here is the back

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...g?t=1181947602

Now, I was thinking I could have a strip of flexwatt on each shelf, but only on the actula chelf,no looping from shelf to shelf. So it is like 5 seperat strips of heat tape, each taped on to its shelf.

Would it cork for me to take a long (I dont know the name of it but its what you use to plug stuff in, maybe like an extension cord) and then cut it into pieces, strip the front part of the plastic off exposing the wire, and then solder it on to the heat tape ends like this,

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...g?t=1181948191
If anyone understands, let me know!!! sorry, its confusing. I think it would wrok though.

yes it will work, you can do away with the green jumper wires. just crimp in two wires into the terminals, and jump to the next piece of flexwatt. just make sure all the flex is the same. that kind of wiring is called a parallel wiring.



vaughn

Yes it is called wiring in parallel. Here is a link to a PDF from the flexwatt manufacturer on doing it.


Flexwatt Parallel Wiring

Sorry I made so many typos,lol. Thanks, i think this will be easier and cheaper!

That is how I've done every rack that I have made, and it works great.

I cut the wire up and got the soldering iron today, Ill hook it all up tomorrow :carrot:

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Originally Posted by Petboy15

I cut the wire up and got the soldering iron today, Ill hook it all up tomorrow :carrot:

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How did it turn out?

I did the first 2 heat tape pieces today. I have 8 left, it s a 10 slot rack. It wasnt very easy actualy, Ic ount get the heat tape silver strip on the side to melt and burn the wire into it. How do you all do it??

On a side note, I also melted a bunch of holes in some plastic, the melted plastic got stuck on the soldering iron tip, now it is dry. How do I get that off?

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Originally Posted by Petboy15

I did the first 2 heat tape pieces today. I have 8 left, it s a 10 slot rack. It wasnt very easy actualy, Ic ount get the heat tape silver strip on the side to melt and burn the wire into it. How do you all do it??

On a side note, I also melted a bunch of holes in some plastic, the melted plastic got stuck on the soldering iron tip, now it is dry. How do I get that off?

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Ive used some solder paste..its white and it makes it stick to whatever you are soldering too. good.

for the melted plastic. use a razor then some sand paper...

g'luck

That's how I wire my racks. I use crimpable male copper tabs from RadioShack, crimp the cord to them in parallel, then slide the tabs right into the Flexwatt. The tabs are beveled like a paint scraper so they slide right between the plastic and the metal strip easily. A little solder and a piece of electrical tape and they're done. I finished my 8 shelf rack this way in about 2 hours, from start to heating.

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Originally Posted by PythonWallace

That's how I wire my racks. I use crimpable male copper tabs from RadioShack, crimp the cord to them in parallel, then slide the tabs right into the Flexwatt. The tabs are beveled like a paint scraper so they slide right between the plastic and the metal strip easily. A little solder and a piece of electrical tape and they're done. I finished my 8 shelf rack this way in about 2 hours, from start to heating.

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those wire ends seem like a really good idea.......I woulnd't have thought of using those like that.

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Originally Posted by thehoofbite

those wire ends seem like a really good idea.......I woulnd't have thought of using those like that.

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They work great. At the time, I was tinkering with a bunch of different connectors for different modifications for my R/C planes, so these came to mind as soon as I started having problems with wiring my first rack.

PythonWallace-your idea sounds good, but I dont get it. What Im doing is I take an old strip of heat cable. I cut the plastic off the ends exposing the copper wire. Then I use the solder to melt the plastic over the heat tape, and attach the wire to the metal strip in the heat tape. It doesnt really work. :confused:

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Originally Posted by Petboy15

PythonWallace-your idea sounds good, but I dont get it. What Im doing is I take an old strip of heat cable. I cut the plastic off the ends exposing the copper wire. Then I use the solder to melt the plastic over the heat tape, and attach the wire to the metal strip in the heat tape. It doesnt really work. :confused:

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I cut 6" extention cords down into 10" or 12" pieces, then strip the ends to expose the wire. Then I match 2 up and twist the wires from the two together and put both into a male tab connector. I crimp it tight and repeat with the second pair of wires. I do this until I have one set of tabbed connections per shelf, with the top shelf being a single wire in the tabs. The bottom shelf has a single plus the end that plugs into the thermostat. These tabs can then be slid under the plastic and against the metal strips in the flexwatt and soldered and taped to secure them. The connectors I use clamp to the cord with a crimping tool or plyers, but they make some that have heat shrink tubing, so you don't have to crimp them.

Here is a sketch. The bottom pair of wires should have a plug at the end. I colored the halves of the cord red and black to illustrate which connections get wired in parallel. Notice the top shelf only has one wire per tab. All of them have two tabs per piece of flex watt.

http://www.inkednation.com/images/us...7170163143.jpg

Figured out where I got mixed up. What is a

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put both into a male tab connector.

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Whats that? The male tab connector? Everything else I get.

You can get them at RadioShack. They come in packs w/ male and female connectors that you attach to wires, than the connectors plug into each other to complete a circuit.

Thanks, Ill try to get some soon. Then you can just crimp them like the flexwatt clips?