Monday, January 18, 2016

Designing a New Style of Wire Retainer

One of the things that I haven't used in my chassis builds up until now is motor wire retainers. I like the look of them, but don't care for the cost. Once I have my motor wires all done up neatly, what do I do with the sensor cable? Recently I gained access to a 3D printer, so I thought I would work on a better wire retainer design as a first project. Someone may have already done it, but I have not seen a design that also retains the sensor cable. So I modeled up the design in Solidworks, and printed out the first prototype parts.



The design is pretty basic, and uses 3mm flat head socket cap screws. I made some plain ones as well as some that have a loop on the bottom for a round style sensor cable. These are right off the printer and only required me to tap the 3mm threads in the bottom pieces.

They are being used on my EA TT02 FRD. I already had the wiring done fairly neatly, but I wanted to make it look a little nicer.


It is a noticeable improvement, and I feel like the wires are more securely retained. The sensor cable ends up tucked neatly underneath.



I am pretty happy with the result of this first design. I think I will also make a version that works with a flat ribbon style sensor cable, too.

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