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Step 4Choose Some Wire
The choice of wire for this project is important. No matter where you put the wire assume that your hamster will be able to reach it and therefore chew on it. As a result it is necessary to use fairly thick wire. I suggest 14 or 12 gauge solid electrical wire that you can buy at your local hardware store.
During my first iteration of this project the hamster chewed through my shoddily protected, thin wire a number of times before I switched to the heavy gauge wire. Now the hamster has managed to strip each wire but since the copper is so thick (like the bars of a cage) the system still works. Don't worry, the voltage going through these wires is very low and the hamster is perfectly safe.
To solder the serial port connector to the wire it may be nice to get some significantly smaller gauge wire to act as an intermediary. I cannibalized an Ethernet cable for this purpose.
During my first iteration of this project the hamster chewed through my shoddily protected, thin wire a number of times before I switched to the heavy gauge wire. Now the hamster has managed to strip each wire but since the copper is so thick (like the bars of a cage) the system still works. Don't worry, the voltage going through these wires is very low and the hamster is perfectly safe.
To solder the serial port connector to the wire it may be nice to get some significantly smaller gauge wire to act as an intermediary. I cannibalized an Ethernet cable for this purpose.
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Jul 14, 2011. 10:09 AMthomasporter
says:
no matter how thick your wire, do not let your hamster anywhere near it. that's very important.
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