Using smaller wires on high current from the gamecube?

[Tchay]

So its no fun to have big bulky 18 awg wires in your portable gamecube for the power lines.

So I was thinking of using 2 or 3 smaller wires for each power connection (in replace of 1, 18 awg wire).

Now, I haven't started my EE major yet, so I'm not sure if this will work. You see, when you shove too many amps into a tiny wire like say a 25 awg, the wire will experience "voltage drop" in which actual voltage is lost to resistance in the metal itself. This voltage is then converted to heat energy. Guess what happens then? Your tiny wire gets freaking hot and melts the rubber insulation and things start shorting out. YAY!

So my question to the more educated is: if I use 2 or 3 smaller wires, will the amperage be divided amongst the wires? Or will each wire still experience the full amperage and have severe voltage drop.

7.4v draws around 1.9A+.7A with my regulator setup. So I need the smallest wiring that will safely carry 2.6A. Technically, 18 awg shouldn't even be enough for this setup, but maybe the numbers from this site were on the conservative side

 

[grossaffe]

amperage should divide. consider the solder joints to be nodes. The sum of all currents entering a node is equal to all currents leaving the node (or in other words, the net current of a node is 0). So if you have 3 amps going in, and then three output wires all of the same impedance, then they should each handle 1 amp. Then at the other solder join, those three 1 amp lines add back together to make 3 amps in.

 

[Tchay]

amperage should divide. consider the solder joints to be nodes. The sum of all currents entering a node is equal to all currents leaving the node (or in other words, the net current of a node is 0). So if you have 3 amps going in, and then three output wires all of the same impedance, then they should each handle 1 amp. Then at the other solder join, those three 1 amp lines add back together to make 3 amps in.

That is just beautiful. So I could probably use 3 smaller wires for each solder joint. That is just loverly.