Just getting ready to wire up my first panel or two with the hagstrom encoder and some radio shack dpdt switches. Nothing fancy Do you guys use a spool of bulk wire, 5 wire? 6-7-8 wire type? What would you reccommend? My panels will have anywhere from 5-10 connections per panel. If more, then I'll double up the cable to make 20, etc.. I was just thinking of some type of spool that I could draw from for future panels. Thanks,Stella

I've seen a lot of people using flatcable, and I have 45 meters myself :)It's cheap, easy to use, tidy,... perfect for the job!

Explain "flat cable" if you please. I dont know this term. Perhaps you can supply a link to what it looks like and where to get it? Thanks,Judy

For general wiring, I find that 24 or 26 gauge stranded wire works well. It's convenient to use a variety of colors just to help keep the wires sorted out. If you look at vendors like Jameco, you'll find this kind of wire referred to as "hook up" wire. Nothing magic about. You just want stranded wire as opposed to solid wire. Solid will break more easily if it gets bent too many times. Stranded wired is made of a number of smaller wires twisted together.If you don't want to invest in several spools of different color wire, take a look at instrument or signal cable. It generally contains different color wires. If you just buy 10 or 20 feet of a ten conductor signal cable you get a bunch of colors without buying a hugh amount of wire. If you do buy single conductor wire by the spool, you often get ripped off if you buy less than 100 feet on a spool. A 10 or 25 foot spool is very expensive when you figure the cost per foot.Flat cable (also known as ribbon cable) is like the stuff used in your PC to connect your disk drive to the mobo. It comes in various widths. It helps keep things neat.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com

Hi!I would choose the "flat" cable, it's the same as you use for hard disk and floppy drives.Thinking about the future, if you want some expansion, it's better not sorder these cables directly to the board. Wire up short cables coming from the switches to a small board with pins on it, and connect these pins with another cable to the hangstrom board. You still able to rip up those cables to singles or pairs, if you need that for better perspicuity.Zsolthttp://kozak74.extra.hu

See this as an example. You also have them color-coded for an easier "debugging".http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Flat-r.../1000786639.htm

I very much liked the idea of using flat cable to wire up mine, but I had two 1000' spools of 22 ga sitting around so that's what I'm currently using.It's more work, but it didn't cost me anything.