Wire diameter. What to choose ?

[Max]

Hello everyone,

I have a really noob question about wire. What is the minimum diameter should we use for power, button, display or audio. Is there some rules to know which kind of cable to use ? I guess the voltage must have a good place in this choice, but I don't really know.
For example, I have at home a really thin wire (around 0.5mm). I worked with it when I used to solder chip on Wii (no electronics knowledge needed, it is just about solder). But I'm not sure that I can use this kind of wire for the display or power.

Thanks for your help

[1461748123]

I'm using 22awg wire, but I believe you can go even thiner than that

[Fleder]

22awg would be around 0,3mm2
I am using 0,14mm2 (25/26awg) most of the time,
and sometimes a thicker one, which i salvaged from Cat-5 cables.

But i have no idea if there is a minimum for it.

[Popcorn]

We are only moving around 5v max so we dont anything crazy.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=5v+minimum+awg

Seems like AWG 20 is the smallest you can go.

[Fleder]

Isn't awg smaller the higher the number is?
That would mean my 26awg wires won't work, which they do.
I am a bit confused

[crispy_tofu]

That's because we also need to take the amperage into account (and any safety factor). I'm not particularly sure how much the Pi and other parts draw in this regard, but it's probably safe to assume that @Fleder's usage of 26AWG is alright.

[Popcorn]

Isn't awg smaller the higher the number is?
That would mean my 26awg wires won't work, which they do.
I am a bit confused

HAHA totally right. Duh

[Fox]

Wermy said he used some wire from an IDE cable. I took an unused IDE cable that I have and the wire was 32awg! Maybe all IDE cables aren't created equal because that seems too small.

[Ganreizu]

I have 18 guage stranded 300V wire, is that acceptable?

[crispy_tofu]

If I'm not mistaken, yes that will work.