Re: gEDA-user: Contact reliability

[Dave McGuire <mcguire@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 19, 2005, at 3:48 PM, Karel Kulhavy wrote:
> > > Technically, these aren't wire nuts, they are terminal strips.  Wire
> > > nuts are used (at least in the USA) as a sloppy (but code-compliant)
> > > way to connect power wires together (you twist the cables together 
> > > and
> > > screw on the wire nut).  Here's a picture of some:
> > > http://www.dansmc.com/wire_nuts.jpg
> >
> >   Ugh.  I despise wire nuts.
>
> What does the wire nut do? Is it a plastic cap that protects the 
> twisted
> place against untwisting?

  It's a plastic cap with something that looks like a spring inside.  
This spring doesn't perform a normal "springy" function, it acts more 
like a elongated nut.  It "threads" (sort of) onto the twisted wires 
when you screw the wire nut onto them.  This gives it a little bit of a 
"bite" so it won't fall off, and more-or-less keeps them together and 
keeps them from untwisting.

  It's a cheap, unrefined, unreliable, inexplicably popular, and 
inexplicably legal way to connect wires together.

              -Dave

--
Dave McGuire              "I've watched Harley people throw up
Cape Coral, FL                      on the ceiling."    -Krissi