Splicing low voltage power line for touchscreen

[robolo]

So I have my hole in the wall and my fishtape in place. I am going to pull 2 cat5 for VGA and USB baluns. After reading threads on this site the best thing to be done for the power is the splice into the 12V wire from the wall wart and have the wall wart plugged into wall power at the site of the PC rather than inside the wall near the touchscreen.

The ELO power supply has a round 4 prong plug that inserts into the back of the touchscreen. Cutting into the wire it is red,black,blue and yellow all surrounded by loose stranded wire. So I need a 4 conductor wire? what about the surrounding loose wires? Is it just shielding which I don't need to worry about or is it grounding which I need to extend across the splice as well ? I need to extend about 50 feet so I was going to use a 4/12 wire?

Anybody have any pictures of how they did it? Thanks in advance

 

[beerguy]

So I have my hole in the wall and my fishtape in place. I am going to pull 2 cat5 for VGA and USB baluns. After reading threads on this site the best thing to be done for the power is the splice into the 12V wire from the wall wart and have the wall wart plugged into wall power at the site of the PC rather than inside the wall near the touchscreen.

The ELO power supply has a round 4 prong plug that inserts into the back of the touchscreen. Cutting into the wire it is red,black,blue and yellow all surrounded by loose stranded wire. So I need a 4 conductor wire? what about the surrounding loose wires? Is it just shielding which I don't need to worry about or is it grounding which I need to extend across the splice as well ? I need to extend about 50 feet so I was going to use a 4/12 wire?

Anybody have any pictures of how they did it? Thanks in advance

Hi Robolo -
I've pretty much got the same setup as you are working on. I ran serial instead of usb but other than that it is the same. I cut the low voltage side of the wall wort cable and basically inserted a 16/4 cable in the middle of the wall wort and the end. I'm not at home now so I can't tell you what colors or pin configuration I had but it shouldn't really matter. 12/4 wire seems a bit overkill but if that's what you have it will work fine. If you just connect the 16/4 to the 4 wires on the wall wort side and then connect the other side of the 16/4 the same way to the round 4 prong plug you should be fine. I don't remember any loose wire around the sides but I know if there were any I didn't use them for anything.

I'll try to remember to take some pics this weekend and post them if that will help.

Pat

 

[robolo]

Hi Robolo -
I've pretty much got the same setup as you are working on. I ran serial instead of usb but other than that it is the same. I cut the low voltage side of the wall wort cable and basically inserted a 16/4 cable in the middle of the wall wort and the end. I'm not at home now so I can't tell you what colors or pin configuration I had but it shouldn't really matter. 12/4 wire seems a bit overkill but if that's what you have it will work fine. If you just connect the 16/4 to the 4 wires on the wall wort side and then connect the other side of the 16/4 the same way to the round 4 prong plug you should be fine. I don't remember any loose wire around the sides but I know if there were any I didn't use them for anything.

I'll try to remember to take some pics this weekend and post them if that will help.

Pat

Pat,
That is the info I needed. The surrounding wire is like the stuff around coax cable which is for grounding. That is why I wasn't sure of it's function here and how significant is was. Thanks for the assistance.

Robert

 

[robolo]

Here is a picture of the cut cable showing the stranded wires surrounding the 4 main wires.

Robolo

 

[beerguy]

Here is a picture of the cut cable showing the stranded wires surrounding the 4 main wires.

Robolo

Hi Robolo -
I'm sure my cable probably had the same mesh of wire around it also. That is the shielding. I'm certainly not an expert at shielding low voltage wiring and the pros/cons of it, but I'm sure I cut it off flush with the wiring jacket and didn't terminate it. I suspect that the shielding is helpful when the cable is running in close proximity to the monitor. In my case it works fine without it.

Good luck and let me know if I can help with any other questions.

Pat