Electrical wiring block for (Many wires to one wire)

[Negativecreep0]

is there some sort of wiring block that allows you to on one side hook up many wires like 30 or so and they all hook up to one wire that comes from the other side


          __
--------|  |
--------|  |
--------|  |------------
--------|_|
         


like this??

[mamerJ]

I got mine at home depot in the electrical department.  It has screws on both sides though.

[Negativecreep0]

do you know the name of the product or techical term

[BobA]

It is called a terminal block or in some places a barrier block.

[Negativecreep0]

I know about terminal strips and all maybe you guys aren't understanding I dont want to connect many wires to many wire i want to connect many wire to one wire....



for the ground


so all grounds connect on one side of the terminal strip then on the other side there is only one wire

[edge]

Someone correct me if I am wrong please...

But you can use the wiring block (with screws on both sides) to do what you want.

I plan on doing this:

----[][]-| (go from 1st screw to second screw)
----[][]-| (go from 2nd screw to 3rd screw)
----[][]-| (etc)
----[][]-|
----[][]-|---------------- (to ground)

Wire the left side of the block with all your ground wires from your switches.
Take some smaller wires and wire the right side from screw 1 to screw 2, from screw 2 to 3, 3 to 4, etc, all the way down to the last screw on right side.

[Negativecreep0]

yes you can do that, but to save me time as i am lazy i would like to get one that has them all hooked up or i may just run sodder down the line.....

[80sMike]

Not sure where I got mine (they're all used/scavenged) , but my terminal blocks all had terminal jumpers of various lengths.  These jumpers look like a small comb and are designed to join 2 or more terminals on the same side.  I think the longest one I have connects 10 together, but you could always solder several if you can't find one to run the full length.

[MinerAl]

Wire Nut

[Minwah]

How come you have so many grounds anyway?  Could you not daisy chain them (if this is for controls or something)?

[Negativecreep0]

daisy chaining makes a lot of mess this way they all go to a barrier which comes out to one wire hook up to db25 cable

[ChadTower]

Wire Nut

Would a wirenut make a solid connection for 31 wires?

[hatrick]

A ground strip from a circuit breaker box should do the trick. Try looking at a Home Depot or similar store in the electrical/circuit breaker section.

[MinerAl]

Wire Nut

Would a wirenut make a solid connection for 31 wires?

Oh.  Didn't realize there were 30.  I'd probably do something dumb like 6 wirenuts with 6, and then one from each of those into a 7th with one out.  I have wirenuts you see, and I hate buying new stuff.

[pointdablame]

daisy chaining makes a lot of mess this way they all go to a barrier which comes out to one wire hook up to db25 cable

It doesn't make a mess... it does exactly what you want.  Daisy chain all the controls together so that each control will only have 2 wires.  At the end, you'll have a single ground wire that you can hook up to your encoder.  You can connect a ground from both ends to create a ground loop as well, which is an even better idea.

And for the record, a terminal strip will work fine.  Use the "comb" pieces that were mentioned to connect an entire end, then run a single wire... I just think its unnecessary to do it this way

[ahofle]

And for the record, a terminal strip will work fine.  Use the "comb" pieces that were mentioned to connect an entire end, then run a single wire... I just think its unnecessary to do it this way

Yeah, I used a combination of daisy chaining and a barrier strip with the 'comb' piece to connect all the terminals.  Worked out great.  They sell everything you need at Radio Shack.

[ChadTower]

[ahofle]

Well, everything you need for connecting 30 wires to 1 I should've said. 

[RetroACTIVE]

It doesn't make a mess...

I think most would agree with Pointdablame...

It is actually the same number of wires no matter what method you use.  The advantage of daisy chain is you are actually using less wire... which IMHO is always less messy.

[ChadTower]

That's a right purty wire job, there.   

[RetroACTIVE]

That's a right purty wire job, there.

Thanks!...

Negativecreep0,

When I first started I considered  the many to one barrier strip approach.  I decided against it because of the number of contacts needed.  So for me basically, the number of buttons and layout certainly affected the its feasibility, at least in terms of the benefits of neatness.

Have fun...

[Negativecreep0]

Retro post more pics of your control panel please closer up and top view it looks great, do you have a site up ??

[RetroACTIVE]

I don't have it on a web site as of yet and have not officially submitted it... however I have many pics on the Project Announcements forum.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43594.0

[tivogre]

It doesn't make a mess...

I think most would agree with Pointdablame...

It is actually the same number of wires no matter what method you use.  The advantage of daisy chain is you are actually using less wire... which IMHO is always less messy.

I gotta agree too.

Daisy chaining is NOT messier!

[edge]

Tivogre,
Very nice job.  A few questions for you:

In your second pic, what are you using for your bundled wire? I thought it was CAT5 but if I count correctly, that one bundled wire goes to 4 joystick switches and 8 button switches.  Since CAT5 only has 4 pairs, what are you using?

Thanks for the info.

[mahuti]

I DIDN'T daisy chain my first control panel and it looks like a total mess... wires and junk everywhere. My newest panel is much cleaner and the wires more manageable, even though it has a lot more stuff installed. Of course I dont' completely blame my ground wires for the problems, but it sure didn't help that they weren't daisy chained. A lot more wire to contend with. I had to make this new panel really clean and organized since I was pushing the boundaries of space on my control panel. It's a bit tough to fit a 49way, trackball, spinnner some buttons and a druins board on a defender panel

[tivogre]

Tivogre,
Very nice job.  A few questions for you:

In your second pic, what are you using for your bundled wire? I thought it was CAT5 but if I count correctly, that one bundled wire goes to 4 joystick switches and 8 button switches.  Since CAT5 only has 4 pairs, what are you using?

Thanks for the info.

I used this wire:



http://www.iec.net/cab012.html

24 gauge 12 conductor.

They also sell it in 2, 4, 8, 10, and 20 conductor.

The 12 conductor is enough for 1 joystick (4 wires), 7 buttons (7 wires), and 1 start button (1 wire) per bundle.

It's good quality stuff.

More wiring detail on my control panel construction page:

http://www.ogredog.com/mame_cp_construction.htm

[MaximRecoil]

do you know the name of the product or techical term

They are called "distribution blocks". They are common in car audio, like this one from "StreetWires" which has one input and 4 outputs:



There is a more expensive fused distribution block that has more outputs here:



But, I don't think you'll find anything that has one input and 30 outputs. They are pretty simple to make for a machinist though, just a brass block with one big shallow hole drilled in one side and 30 small shallow holes drilled in the other side, with some set-screws for each hole to secure the wire when it is inserted.

Another thing you can do is use those little crimp-on ring terminals and put one on each of the ends of all your wires, then run a bolt through all of the rings and secure it with a nut and lock-washer. Then put the silicone to it for insulation.

Then of course there is the old standby "wire nut" that simply twists in place or similarly shaped connectors that crimp in place.

[DarkBubble]

A ground bar would do the trick.  I don't know that I've seen one hit 30 inputs, but it's not as if you couldn't daisy-chain one or two together.  If you can't find them in the electrical section of Home Depot, try an electrical supply retailer who deals in more industrial parts.  Bear in mind that you'll have to plan your wiring, as even a 13-hole ground bar is between 6 and 8 inches.  If you can find one with 30 holes, it's going to be a foot and a half or better.