As I have been reprimanded by many, I have decided not to use Cat5 for the power (12VDC, 4A). I would like help in deciding the right guage wire. I have 16/4 and 16/2 (both used for speaker wiring) at the moment. Which one is good for the use. I can buy something else as well if required. Please advise.
Regards,
Shaurya
It depends how far you need to run the wire, and what voltage will be acceptable at the tablet. When you run LV over distances, there is always a drop in the voltage from the power supply to the remotey powered item (in this case a touchscreen).
With 16GA wire, pushing 12V, 4A, over 50 feet, the voltage at the touchscreen will be 11.2V. With 14GA wire, it would be 11.5V. With 12GA wire, it would be 11.68V. Before I ran the wire, I would hook up your touchscreen to the power supply, using the same length of wire that you plan to use in the house for powering the unit. That way, you can make sure it works first.
As for the question, will speaker cabling work for that application...I'm not sure. I would check your local codes to see if they have any requirements for LV wiring.
