Brad's extra-fancy cable chain trick

[Brad Parcels]

Hi all,

   I came up with a cable-chain alternative a while back, but never did get around to sharing/posting it anywhere… As I was relocating my bottom-vision camera last week, I took a few photos to help illustrate for anybody doing some cable-wrangling of their own:

 

  Basically, it does the same job as normal cable-chain – but it is quieter, lower resistance, and a fair bit cheaper to boot! It won’t work for everything (i.e. thick/stiff cables) – but works amazingly well for thinner/flexy stuff like stepper motor wiring etc!

 

The finished product:

 

 

 

The shopping list:

 

1. Cheap cable-braiding (I guess it doesn’t have to be cheap… your call):

 

2. A cheap tape-measure… or at least the “tape” part, harvested from within…. In this case “FIXA” from Ikea for $1.75 (and that’s Canadian… so probably only $0.25 for most of you)! Tape width/sizing will depend on the cable you are trying to wrangle… (A wider/stronger tape will be better at controlling bigger cables):

 

That’s it!

 

If you support both ends of the tape, you’ll notice that it makes a lovely self-supporting “U” shape, and that it keeps that shape when you move either end in line with the “arms”:

 

So just whip up a mount for either end of the tape (and make sure you don’t crush the curve of the tape in the mounting… for this tape, I used a 16mm radius on the mounting point):

(I punched holes in this one, to screw down onto the mount… But glue, clamping, etc. has also worked well for me in the past)

 

With mounts in hand, cut your tape to length, and sheath up your cable/tape. Note: Here I’ve got the braid on the tape alone, and then the cable and tape together… Not always necessary, but this USB cable was getting too “grabby” without something between them:

 

Throw some heat-shrink on the end to keep things tidy:

 

 

Then just lather, rinse, and repeat for the other side… Finally - throw it into place and give it a try:

 

 

With everything tightened down, finalized, and rolling perfectly – it’s a great time to think about the other two pairs of wire that you meant to include…. (sigh):

 

Cheers,

Brad

[Anthony Webb]

Very clever Brad!

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 13, 2017, at 4:22 AM, Brad Parcels <bpar...@viopix.com> wrote:

Hi all,

   I came up with a cable-chain alternative a while back, but never did get around to sharing/posting it anywhere… As I was relocating my bottom-vision camera last week, I took a few photos to help illustrate for anybody doing some cable-wrangling of their own:

 

  Basically, it does the same job as normal cable-chain – but it is quieter, lower resistance, and a fair bit cheaper to boot! It won’t work for everything (i.e. thick/stiff cables) – but works amazingly well for thinner/flexy stuff like stepper motor wiring etc!

 

The finished product:

 

<image003.jpg>

 

 

The shopping list:

 

1. Cheap cable-braiding (I guess it doesn’t have to be cheap… your call):

<image005.jpg>

 

2. A cheap tape-measure… or at least the “tape” part, harvested from within…. In this case “FIXA” from Ikea for $1.75 (and that’s Canadian… so probably only $0.25 for most of you)! Tape width/sizing will depend on the cable you are trying to wrangle… (A wider/stronger tape will be better at controlling bigger cables):

<image007.jpg>

 

That’s it!

 

If you support both ends of the tape, you’ll notice that it makes a lovely self-supporting “U” shape, and that it keeps that shape when you move either end in line with the “arms”:

<image011.jpg>

 

So just whip up a mount for either end of the tape (and make sure you don’t crush the curve of the tape in the mounting… for this tape, I used a 16mm radius on the mounting point):

(I punched holes in this one, to screw down onto the mount… But glue, clamping, etc. has also worked well for me in the past)

<image015.jpg>

 

With mounts in hand, cut your tape to length, and sheath up your cable/tape. Note: Here I’ve got the braid on the tape alone, and then the cable and tape together… Not always necessary, but this USB cable was getting too “grabby” without something between them:

<image017.jpg>

 

Throw some heat-shrink on the end to keep things tidy:

<image019.jpg>

 

 

Then just lather, rinse, and repeat for the other side… Finally - throw it into place and give it a try:

<image022.png>

 

 

With everything tightened down, finalized, and rolling perfectly – it’s a great time to think about the other two pairs of wire that you meant to include…. (sigh):

<image023.jpg>

 

Cheers,

Brad

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[Michael Anton]

Great minds think alike apparently, as I've been contemplating something along the same lines for cables on my 3D printer for quite awhile now.  But, I never thought of using cable braid to hold everything together!!  That looks like a great solution.

For my application, I found that the silicone jacketed ribbon cable I'm using will support itself well enough, and it doesn't really need to be in a chain to work, so I've just been using it as is.  I highly recommend the Cicoil cables for their continuous flex rating, as they are actually designed for these sorts of applications.  You can get small quantities of this wire from McMaster-Carr, so it is pretty easy to get too.

On Wednesday, December 13, 2017 at 4:22:50 AM UTC-7, Bradley Parcels wrote:

Hi all,

   I came up with a cable-chain alternative a while back, but never did get around to sharing/posting it anywhere… As I was relocating my bottom-vision camera last week, I took a few photos to help illustrate for anybody doing some cable-wrangling of their own:

 

  Basically, it does the same job as normal cable-chain – but it is quieter, lower resistance, and a fair bit cheaper to boot! It won’t work for everything (i.e. thick/stiff cables) – but works amazingly well for thinner/flexy stuff like stepper motor wiring etc!

 

The finished product:

 

 

 

The shopping list:

 

1. Cheap cable-braiding (I guess it doesn’t have to be cheap… your call):

 

2. A cheap tape-measure… or at least the “tape” part, harvested from within…. In this case “FIXA” from Ikea for $1.75 (and that’s Canadian… so probably only $0.25 for most of you)! Tape width/sizing will depend on the cable you are trying to wrangle… (A wider/stronger tape will be better at controlling bigger cables):

 

That’s it!

 

If you support both ends of the tape, you’ll notice that it makes a lovely self-supporting “U” shape, and that it keeps that shape when you move either end in line with the “arms”:

 

So just whip up a mount for either end of the tape (and make sure you don’t crush the curve of the tape in the mounting… for this tape, I used a 16mm radius on the mounting point):

(I punched holes in this one, to screw down onto the mount… But glue, clamping, etc. has also worked well for me in the past)

 

With mounts in hand, cut your tape to length, and sheath up your cable/tape. Note: Here I’ve got the braid on the tape alone, and then the cable and tape together… Not always necessary, but this USB cable was getting too “grabby” without something between them:

 

Throw some heat-shrink on the end to keep things tidy:

 

 

Then just lather, rinse, and repeat for the other side… Finally - throw it into place and give it a try:

 

 

With everything tightened down, finalized, and rolling perfectly – it’s a great time to think about the other two pairs of wire that you meant to include…. (sigh):

 

Cheers,

Brad

[Bradley Parcels]

LOL - alike indeed! It was actually another Cicoil product that inspired my version... They have something called "FlexRail" that embeds a steel strip on either side of the ribbon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVmYyb4aWzE)... 

First time I tried it was also for a 3D printer... and while the photo below shows a standard ribbon, that's only because my Cicoil ribbon hadn't arrived yet!!! :-)

DigiKey also carries a fair bit of their stuff - not cheap, but definitely the best cabling I've come across!

Cheers,

Brad

[Michael Anton]

You're right, it is nice cable, but it sure is a pain to strip, and terminate.  I designed a couple of PCBs to make it easier to connect the cable to a connector.