Ideas for wire placement

[SL8]

We are afraid that the wires will get snagged, cut, tangled, et cetera.
Any ideas on how to do the wiring to prevent these problems.

[EricH]

Do you guys have the cable chain (or whatever it's called) from the KOP, Igus bag? If so, that might work. Or wrap all the wires together to make one cable. It shouldn't be too hard to do the latter, and the former is a specialized method.

[vhcook]

How are you doing on weight? Options of varying weight impact include:

• A hatch to cover your main electronics (leaving the 120A breaker button available for emergency reset and the controller lights visible).

• Ty-wrap to group your cables and link them to non-moving parts of the structure.

• Keep your cables as short as possible (while allowing for minimum bend radii and routing considerations)

• Some form of conduit to enclose a wiring bundle and protect it from snags and abrasion. Useful types of this include the IGUS energy chain from the KOP and something we usually call "vaccum cleaner hose conduit").

[SL8]

We will look into (and for) those options. Currently we are at 100 lbs. Thanks for the replies thus far.

[vhcook]

I didn't have a chance to look this up before but the hose-style conduit is apparently officially called wire loom. Here is one of the many sources. Tends to come in 100' increments (or more). It's basically a hose with a slit up the side. http://www.electriduct.com/wire-mana...l-purpose.html

[Xena]

Originally Posted by EricH

Do you guys have the cable chain (or whatever it's called) from the KOP, Igus bag? If so, that might work. Or wrap all the wires together to make one cable. It shouldn't be too hard to do the latter, and the former is a specialized method.

With the limit switches in several locations, creating a single "cable" has proved to be somewhat of a challenge. Part of the wiring is in the cable chain provided. A very flexable cable wrap may help for the rest. Thanks. ---Any other ideas?

[DonRotolo]

You need to learn the concept of "Wire Dress", that means to bring all the wires neatly together into a nice bundle. Look under the hood of any car for an example.

Lots and lots of wire ties, and some kid who is a neat freak will work.

Believe it or not, pipe cleaners make great wire dress items: Just wrap in a small spiral every few inches or so.

At the regional, look around for good ideas...

Don

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jesus,
You might try making a zig-zag run from one side of the robot to the other. Place the elevator section of your robot at it's highest point and set the length of your wiring from top to bottom. Then use a wire tie at the top and bottom of the run to hold your test wire in place. When you collapse the elevator you will see the wire try to fall in a zig-zag fashion. Using some elastic or surgical tubing, try to pull the wire to one side and/or the other as the elevator goes up and down. If the tubing is too strong, it may be slit along it's length to form narrow strips that are not as strong as the whole tube. use the tubing to keep the wires from getting caught by the moving parts of the elevator. If you have a small bundle of wiring, wire ties placed a few inches apart for the whole length will work to keep the wiring together. If the bundle is larger, you might want to use "split loom" tubing that can be found at Radio Shack, MCM or a local car stereo outlet.