I know it was mentioned last year that the Weidmuller connectors on this control system were also designed to work with ferrules. Did anyone do this last build season? Did you find it easier than just inserting stranded wire? What size ferrules did you use? Where did you source them from?
I used extensively for work and would always recommend them when using stranded wire. I also used them for a new controls board for our programmers to be able to develop and train with. It doesn’t really change a much for the power distribution board but it makes it much easier for the pneumatics module and voltage regulator module.
For the size part of the question I used a range of sizes for the range for the sizes of wire on the robot. With the different colors it kind of gives it a color code for the different sizes of wire.
McMaster has the full range of sizes with choice of colors. You can probably find them cheaper else where.
From my experience, using the ferrules was great! They made connecting wires into the Weidmuller connector a lot more easier, it felt like a more secure way of connecting wires to the pcm, vrm, and roborio.
http://www.ctr-electronics.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=ferrule
Those are the ferrules I used.
Very satisfied with how the ferrules worked for us last season and will be using going forward…
We had mixed results using wire ferrules last year, and the inconsistency came from one of the two crimpers we used.
One of our crimpers left a smooth surface on the crimped ferrule, and they tended to pull out of the spring-loaded Wago/Weidmuller type connectors pretty easily. The other crimper put a series of ridges across the crimped ferrule, and these were retained much better by the spring-loaded connectors.
The ridged termination crimper is Pressmaster part number DEB-0560.
We also had mixed results. The ferule connectors worked GREAT in the PCM and the VRM but did not work well at all in the PDP. Even with the crimping process creating ridges that the Weidmuller connector could grab we found connections pulling from the PDP often. We ended up leaving the ferule connector on items connected to the PCM and VRM and tinning the ends of stra
nded wires going to the PDP in order to keep them in place.
One of the Austin area teams used ferrules in the 2015 season, 2468, I think. We and some other Houston area teams are considering using them next season. Some of the wire assemblies we get made at work have used them for years.
Make sure you get the proper ferrules such as the one below
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/FSD77-8-D/298-10286-ND/448660
I tried using some “wire pin” crimp lugs last season, like the ones linked below. They did not work well because the pin part was a bit big to fit into the small Weidmuller connectors for the low current 12 V connections and the CAN connections. The crimped part also ended up too big to be able to fit more than 3 of them with the 3 mm center-to-center spacing of the Weidmuller connectors.
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/165167/A99257-ND/1864557
Guys,
Not all ferrules are created for this application. My recommendation is that you stay with Weidmuller devices designed for this termination and use only the approved crimping tool. The terminal is designed for a specific cross section that the crimp tool provides.
Yup, we used them. Insulated DIN model from automationdirect (ferrules and crimper). This was something we picked up from Dr Jeff and the gang of 2789.
Based on Al’s recommendation, I’ll investigate the Weidmuller version.
2 Likes
Check out http://www.ferrulesdirect.com. They have the best prices and very reasonable hand crimpers. I use them at my company for all wiring purposes.
I would highly recommend using ferrules to prevent stray wire strands from causing shorts. I’ve see it in industrial field wiring many times and found a few cases on past robots when we didn’t enforce using ferrules for all wiring.
I work in the industrial controls field, or shop had these in-stock, and had great success with them, students love them too.
We use a Weidmuller PZ 6 Roto Wire Crimping Tool to make the crimp.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1498481&postcount=34
Can you comment on the dies on ferrules direct? Which one do you like best?
Thanks!
-matto-