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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: dir on February 12, 2019, 07:46:53 pm

Title: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: dir on February 12, 2019, 07:46:53 pm: Looking for suggestions on how to bundle/tie down/wrap? a huge amount of wires in my CP. I have 22 buttons, trackball and 2 joys that are pretty manageable. The problem is that I've now added RGB lighting to all the buttons, using Paradise's IL button LEDs https://paradisearcadeshop.com/en/home/electrical/pcbs-lighting/led-lighting-solutions/button-leds/100_il-lumination-rgb-5vdc-led- (https://paradisearcadeshop.com/en/home/electrical/pcbs-lighting/led-lighting-solutions/button-leds/100_il-lumination-rgb-5vdc-led-), each with 24" 4-wire flat ribbon cables with connectors at each end. The combined total of all the wires weighs a ton and is waaay too long for 90% of the connections. If I bundle them together in my hand, it creates about a 1.5" thick bundle. Apart from the weight, it is a disasterous rats nest under there.

I'm looking for suggestions from others that have used LED lighting and managed their mess.
I'm NOT going to trim each of the LED cables to size and then have to reattach the connectors. That would be way too much work. I'm not keen on adhesive cable ties as they'll just fall off with age. Happy to screw into the 3/4" ply. What about cable wraps or something?
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: Gilrock on February 12, 2019, 08:11:56 pm: I'm no expert but I just went through this so all I can do is try to share how I attempted to make it look organized. I first zip tied all my switch wiring but I made my own ground harness so it was built to fit nice. The wires to each switch though what I did was put all the ones going right into a bundle and zip tie them close to the IO board. Then I started at the far end began zip tying each wire or two as it fed into the middle and created a harness going down through the middle of the buttons. When you end up with the extra wire in the middle try to make it like a loop and then flatten out the loop and start zip tying it into the harness you built. Do that to both sides then repeat the process for the led wires. Below is what mine ended up looking like. Now if I need to service a wire it might be a bit of a pain but I can separate the leds from the switch bundles without removing too many zip ties.

(http://www.threebuttes.com/Extras/mame/CP_WiringComplete.jpg)
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: bperkins01 on February 12, 2019, 08:13:42 pm: Take a look at my build thread at this point: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156272.msg1655556.html#msg1655556 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156272.msg1655556.html#msg1655556)

You need to pick up a few tools - but you can make it pretty neat in there with a relatively minimal expense.
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: Gilrock on February 12, 2019, 08:33:41 pm: Yep you can make it really nice if you cut the wires and crimp new pins. I thought about it but it would have delayed me for several days having to find and order pins so I just went with the premade wires.
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: Nephasth on February 12, 2019, 10:13:13 pm: Use ALL black wire, black zip ties, black mounts. Black on black on black, baby.
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: Dervacumen on February 12, 2019, 11:29:27 pm: FWIW I found using solid wire gave me real advantages over stranded when faced with this problem:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=104756.0 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=104756.0)

I freaking loved this wiring job, and it was pretty fun too boot.
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: ark_ader on February 13, 2019, 10:53:04 pm: Quote from: Dervacumen on February 12, 2019, 11:29:27 pm
FWIW I found using solid wire gave me real advantages over stranded when faced with this problem:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=104756.0 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=104756.0)

I freaking loved this wiring job, and it was pretty fun too boot.

SCSI 68 pin ribbon cable is a good alternative. I pick them up at Frys when they are 49c. Cut them at any length.

(https://cs-electronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/8mmFemaleRibbon-ADG1.jpg)
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: Nephasth on February 13, 2019, 11:11:33 pm: Quote from: ark_ader on February 13, 2019, 10:53:04 pm
SCSI 68 pin ribbon cable is a good alternative.

(https://media.giphy.com/media/wYyTHMm50f4Dm/giphy.gif)
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: Scotty_C on February 14, 2019, 05:52:32 pm: I preferred to sleeve most of my wiring. Combined where I could. (This was a lot of work but turned out great). I realize this method may not be for you as you indicated though ;)

Couple tips:
- Velcro really helped with managing and bundling the wires
- Keep the RGB stuff separate in case any of the LEDs have issues. Turned out a couple of mine did end up having issues and being separate made for easy replacement.
Title: Re: Neatifying a million CP LED and button wires?
Post by: bperkins01 on February 14, 2019, 05:55:22 pm: @scotty_c - ok - thats crazy good... :applaud:

I've never sleeved wiring before.. I'm sure I will learn now