I have been looking at a few things but i havnt seen what wire to use to make an inductor. I looked up 'inductor wire' on google and i saw some wire that said "enamel coated" wire. Also whever i took apart a speaker, i always saw that the wire is red that made up the voice coil. What i am wondering is, since i am making an air coil inductor, if i use bare wire, wont i have to have it so the wire wont touch eachother? if that is true, could i just use a solid wire with a plastic jacket around it?
Also i am wondering if that inductor wire i saw is really different from regular solid core wire, as in if it is coated so it wont touch eachother making the electricity not go through a coil but makin the electricity travel across each other instead of goin through a coil design.
I know and have worked with inductors in car audio. im just at the point that i want to make my own, or understand how they are made instead of just saying "oh, thats a *mH inductor that i need, great". More knowledge never hurt anyone:-)
Any info is greatly appreciated.
Use coated wire to make the inductor. Inductors are based on the principle that they do not let electricity alternate above a certain point. using bare wire will essentially short the energy around the inductor rather than through it.
As for what you saw in your inductor that you took apart, each manufacturer has its own way of making them. some use low strand OFC, some use solid core. One company (can't remember the name right now) uses Nitrogen Injected Copper. We've listened to them and WOW! Very clean slopes. even 4th and 5th orders have a very clean slope. Unfortunately, it costs a LOT (about 6-10 times the average price)
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I just saw some inductors that were bare wire but they were spaced apart so they wouldnt short but for a car audio application, ill go with what u said about the coated wire. what gauge wire should i use? im trying to make a 1.36mH inductor for a 3rd order crossover. i want it to be 700hz so the first cap will be 18uf and the one after that will be 56uf.
is the internet the only place to get coated wire? or can i go to homedepot and get some thin(not too thin tho) solid wire that has a jacket on it? it doesnt matter if this speaker sounds crapp or not because its just used for a microphone loudspeaker for human voice. it iwll be about 50 watts. Will a 35V rating on the cap be sufficient or will i have to find some that are atleast 50-100V?
thanks a lot for the help so far
I get all mine usually from
https://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=255-052&DID=7-------------
Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.
It says that has DC Resistance: 1.00 Ù ¤. isnt the resistance bad tho for a coil? or what does that exaclt mean in the context of an inductor.
Also i am wondering, what types of inductors do u have to get to make them be like the ones that come with high end speakers? I know the crossovers for my Apline speakers cost a lot if u need new ones
silentblackhat wrote:
It says that has DC Resistance: 1.00 Ù ¤. isnt the resistance bad tho for a coil? or what does that exaclt mean in the context of an inductor.
If you are worried about that DCR (which IMO, is a bit high, especially if it's in series with a woofer) Get a different inductor with larger wire. The larger the wire, the lower it's DCR, for any given inductance. If you were to choose (still Jantzen) a
14 gauge inductor, your DCR is only .28 ohms -
one quarter the DCR of the 20 gauge inductor.
silentblackhat wrote:
Also i am wondering, what types of inductors do u have to get to make them be like the ones that come with high end speakers? I know the crossovers for my Apline speakers cost a lot if u need new ones
They cost a lot, 'cause they say "Alpine" on them, seriously. (That's not a joke... see, no smiley...) The best inductors, (again, IMO) are
foil inductors. They offer faster response, lower hysteresis losses, and actually DO sound better. You can't actually unwind a larger one to arrive at your desired inductance, but they have MANY more available values in the foil line, so you should be able to find one fairly close to your desired value.
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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."
yeah, i was looking at the 5ohm resistors and they say alpine on them inside the crossover network clear box...ill look into the foil ones