i have a thousand oaks 4 channel heater and wanted to extend all the heater wires that go into the heater channel they are all a little short i bought some male and female rca plugs and single shield wire as this is used of the heater bands while making the extentions i soldered the centre wire red to the centre pin on plug the external wire around the red centre i soldered to the negative checked the connections with the multi meter everything was fine pluged the cables together and the thousand oakes started to smell and a little smoke turned everything of plugged the original heater wires in without the extentions i made no problems so its in my extention wires ive made not knowing what ive done wrong thought id better post here before i do any more wiring and damage HELP
mozzie
While soldering the outer shield you must have melted the centre red and shorted it. Test it with a meter.
i checked with the continuity and there wasnt any probs i was just searching the net found a site said dont use shielded wire to thin heats up shorts out use good quality speaker wire whats your thoughts david
mozzie
Coax is no good. It can't handle any current. Definitely go the bigest diameter figure 8 speaker cable that will fit an RCA.
i just made a test run on some good quality figure 8 cable and there was no probs but i ask how come the wire thats on the heater straps doesnt melt and smoke
mozzie
It may be okay in your application. Generally heater wiring is best crimped to maintain connection. Even low heating of wiring can soften and fail the connection after repeated use.
If its well away from the heater element no problem.
You could consider that you may have had an intermittant short initially too.
i redid all leads with figure 8 wire and new rca plugs and theres no problems know spoke to the boys at jaycar and yes the single shield wire heats up and can get really hot as mine did
mozzie
rca plug wiring
