found a source for multi-color wire... DUH!

[krick]

I don't know why I didn't think of this before but I've found a source for multi-colored 22 gauge stranded wire...

Hack up a JAMMA harness.

I just got 2 HAPP harnesses off of eBay for $30, and there's a guy selling 10 (!!!) of them for $48 right now...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3275681569&category=13718

I know it's not really cheap but if you want to get a LOT of different wire colors, there isn't really much choice unless you want to buy a 500 or 1000 foot spool of multi conductor wire for like $300.

My Happ harness is 5 feet long and has 46 wires.  That's 230 feet of wire.

There's 29 unique colors.  Here's the breakdown...

solid color:
black (10)
red (5)
blue (3)
green (2)
brown (2)

color/stripe:
blue/tan
brown/black
brown/blue
brown/green
brown/white
green/tan
green/yellow
orange/blue
orange/green
orange/white
pink/black
red/black
red/white
red/yellow
white
white/black
white/brown
white/orange
white/purple
white/red
white/yellow
yellow
yellow/black
yellow/white

[Jakobud]

You know you could just use all one color of wire  

[Superdude]

Yes you could use one wire, but it gets really confusing when making your adapters for jamma or wiring your control panel if you make a mistake.  Good idea about the jamma harness.  I too wish there was a cheaper way.

[patrickl]

That seems quite expensive. Can't you just buy a printer cable or something?

Or actually, just buy the cable used in it by the foot? I just bought 5 meters of 36 x 22 AWG wire. 5 feet of that cable would cost 7 euro (and then I didn't even shop around) .

[Sephroth57]

www.therealbobroberts.com sells multicolored wires for a good price, you get a pack of 10 colors 10' of each for 7$

[krick]

The hard part is finding a place that will sell you wire by the foot that has a LOT of colors.

Plus if you're looking for 22 or 20 stranded, it becomes a little harder.  Most places I've found have 24 in a lot of colors but nothing thicker.

A parallel cable has really thin wires.   CAT-5 is too thin as well.

[patrickl]

Well I didn't have any trouble finding it and it is 36 stranded, multicolored, 22 AWG at 4 euro a meter. In the USA it's probably even easier to find something like that than it is in europe. Personally I'd rather have less colors, but I'm using it for "normal" cables as well and then you really need every strand to have a unique color.

Apart from that I bought the wiring kit from Ultimarc. That was actually pretty expensive (at least I though it was a lot of money at $19) but then at least I would be sure I had the right disconnects and shrink thingy  

[Nuttman]

Here are a couple of places to get wire cheaply, in 25' and 100' spools:

Vetcosurplus.com
----------------------
www.vetcosurplus.com

Check out the wire here:
http://shop.vetcosurplus.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=114_170_171

Multiple colors, just click on the gauge and length for more info.



Mouser Electronics
-----------------------
 www.mouser.com

Sells in 100' spools (in addition to the 1000' spools).
http://www.mouser.com/catalog/617/571.pdf
http://www.mouser.com/catalog/617/572.pdf


These sites also offer connectors, so you could get all your wiring supplies with one order.

[patrickl]

Don't you get 25' or 100' of one color then? I thought the object of the thread was to get multicolored wire cheap.

[krick]

Here are a couple of places to get wire cheaply, in 25' and 100' spools:

Vetcosurplus.com
----------------------
www.vetcosurplus.com

Check out the wire here:
http://shop.vetcosurplus.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=114_170_171

Multiple colors, just click on the gauge and length for more info.



Mouser Electronics
-----------------------
 www.mouser.com

Sells in 100' spools (in addition to the 1000' spools).
http://www.mouser.com/catalog/617/571.pdf
http://www.mouser.com/catalog/617/572.pdf


These sites also offer connectors, so you could get all your wiring supplies with one order.

vetcosurplus only has 10 colors
mouser only has 13 colors


To wire each player with a color coded bundle, you'd need about 15 colors...

Ground
Coin
Start
Up      
Down    
Left    
Right  
Button 1
Button 2
Button 3
Button 4
Button 5
Button 6
Button 7
Button 8

With 29 colors, I could wire each player with completely different colors as long as I use black for ground on both.

[Nuttman]

My mistake, I see what you're getting at.  Color coding each connection differently definitely requires more choices that these vendors provide.

Hopefully the vendor links I provided could help out someone who doesn't need as many color choices.

[Gideon]

The poor man's option is to use a labelling system.  Why not do that?

[rob]

The poor man's option is to use a labelling system.  Why not do that?

It's a good idea, but with small cp's like mine, all those labels would really make a mess and cramp everything real bad.  So, color coding is the best way to go.  When I wired mine, I used all black.  I mixed up the left and down on player 1 and even though it wasn't really THAT bad, finding the proper wires was definately a pain in the arse with that little space.

[paigeoliver]

I actually prefer to work with black wires for ground, and the same color for everything else (usually red).

There is GOOD reason for that.

It REQUIRES me to check connections rather than make assumptions based on wire colors. Assumptions based on wire colors have led to MANY, MANY, MANY arcade mishaps over the years.

[patrickl]

I actually prefer to work with black wires for ground, and the same color for everything else (usually red).

There is GOOD reason for that.

It REQUIRES me to check connections rather than make assumptions based on wire colors. Assumptions based on wire colors have led to MANY, MANY, MANY arcade mishaps over the years.

Doesn't the multi coloring just make it much easier to check if you have colored wires? With "assumptions" do you mean that you misread the color (like mixing up brown-white and black-white)? Or for instance, that you thought the red wire would be player one start and in fact it was player 2 start?

BTW, if you use a multimeter to test the wiring, you could still accidently measure it against the wrong connector on the i-pac (or whatever you use). So in that case you have a risk of doing things wrong too.

[nipsmg]

I used all black too..

Here's my problem, however:

I temporarily printed my CPO on a crappy inkjet plotter.. It's very dithered, and while from a distance it still looks great under the plexi, up close it starts to look crappy.  Also, I ran out of funds before getting all of the correctly colored buttons, and eventually have to remove the plexi and CPO to put in the new CPO when I get it.

What I'm worried about is... I'm going to have TONS OF MICROSWITCHES, not connected to buttons, ALL WIRED THE SAME COLOR.  I guess I could turn on the computer and manually click them to find out where they go, but it's going to be a nightmare.. I REALLY wish I had done it differently now.

--NipsMG

[eightbit]

What I'm worried about is... I'm going to have TONS OF MICROSWITCHES, not connected to buttons, ALL WIRED THE SAME COLOR.  I guess I could turn on the computer and manually click them to find out where they go, but it's going to be a nightmare.. I REALLY wish I had done it differently now.

This is easy, don't disconnect the wires from the switches. Simply label the switches when you pop them out of the buttons.