Neat & Organised Electric Wiring

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Ken Patton

Some good guidelines here, but I have a few questions for you guru's:

1. Why do you say to use velcro instead of zipties? Seems to me there would be less stress on the wire bundle to just snip off a ziptie than there would be to try and rip the velcro.

2. What brands of super-flexible wire are you using? (I know Paul Copioli and 217 have used this stuff on their well-organized wiring jobs - they are my benchmark for great wiring).

3. Aren't you supposed to solder the end BEFORE crimping? This is called tinning I believe.

One idea that we have used the last few years: rather than hard mount the polycarbonate control-mounting-board to the robot, we have "suspended" it trampoline style from the frame. Seems to me that this is lighter and it provides some amount of isolation from the vibration of the robot.

Ken

Ken,
There are several companies that make velcro just for wire management. I think it is OK for static loads but I question it's use on movable objects like our robots. The load on a large wire bundle during a hit is likely to open.
Newark sells a #10 zip cord that is not super flex but is more flexible than most off the shelf #10. It is designed for automotive stereo install and has a red and black wire.
A great connection is one that is mechanically stable first. Any connection that will be soldered should be crimped tight first. We use a equivalent to the Anderson connector for #10 connections (to make it easy to change) to motors. We add push on 1/4" connectors for speed controllers. (The same as are on the circuit breaker panels.) All of these connectors start out as uninsulated. We crimp the wire then solder and add a piece of heatshrink over the wire and connector to protect it, the contacts for the Andersons must not have exposed wire after contact insertion. Never "tin" wires before a crimp contact as explained above.
Adding a poly plate to mount everything just adds too much weight for us. I am under STRICT guidelines for weight restrictions. (wink, wink)