I was wondering if any teams/individuals have ideas on how to wire 2 motors that are at the top of a telescoping arm. It’d be great if anyone could offer advice/techniques on stealthily wiring 4 wires to attach to the outside of 2 alunimum tubes, that extend approx. 5-7 feet, without having a mess of wire in a certain place.
It’s been a long day, so my wording might be a little off, hehe. My team has until Friday/Saturday to get everything finished (basically there), so we’re kinda in a rush now.
I’d have to know more about the situation, but you might look into drilling a hole large enough to snake the wires through the inside of the tube. If you decide to do this, make sure that you protect the wire around sharp edges, or even do away with the sharp edges by filing. The helical wire wrapping material is very handy, but if you don’t secure it, you should check it regularly to make sure that it stays in the right place.
If you could post a picture of the situation, it’d be a lot easier to suggest ways of helping.
Well currently I don’t have any pictures of it (my team never releases pictures until our first regional anyway). Also, we cannot wire it through the tube, because it’s square 1/4" aluminum, 1 inside the other.
I thought about this, but that would mean that there would be a bunch of wire when it compresses.
I attached an image of what it will look like in a before/after extension. Now The wire cannot be attached inside the tubing, because there is no space between the 2 tubes, and there is a shaft inside the middle which we do not want to get entangled.
we had this problem in 2001 when we had a long telescoping arm. we fixed it in a jury rig kind of way, but it worked.
we took a long piece of surgical tubing and affixed our wiring to it at regular intervals. for example, if the wiring was tied off at every 3 inches of surgical tubing, then between each tie off there would be 6 inches of wiring. in its normal state, the wiring kinda zig-zagged back and forth. when the arm extended, the tube stretched so that at full extension the wiring was going straight with the tubing.
this is a great, if brute force, way of controlling wiring. there is always a chance of entangling the wiring in an external object, so you may want keep it in some sort of flexible sleeve on the side of your arm.
Solace is correct, Using rubber tubing or even rubber bands you can keep the wire under control. Start with things at max length, Then figure what you can tie to that doesn’t move and tie the strechy things in center of wire loops you want to control. Good luck
