Here are A Few of My Favourite Things that I do when I am building a
multi-component installation.
When I need to turn a prototype into a working installation, two
important tools in my toolbox are hot-melt glue, and self-locking
cable ties (also known as "Zip Ties").
Together these techniques help to turn a jumble of wires and parts into
a robust installation that will function reliably and look professional.
Custom patch cables and headers
While pre-made "du Pont" jumper leads are convenient and inexpensive,
sometimes you want an exact length. Jumper leads typically come in
10cm, 20cm or 30cm lenths, but when you're making a permanent
installation, you want your links to be the exact length you need, to
reduce clutter. Here is a technique I learned in the days of the MIT
"Handy Board" (an early robotics experimenters' platform, popular in
the early 1990s):
First, obtain a supply of snap-off headers, female header pins, and
ribbon cable. Old parallel-ATA data cables are good, or you can buy a
roll of coloured ribbon cable. You can also cut your existing du Pont
cables to length and attach new ends.
Next hold your headers in a soldering clamp, and tin each pin.
Strip and tin your wires. Solder the wires to the pins by holding
them overlapped by 2mm and touching with the soldering iron.
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Now you need to insulate the joins. Heat-shrink is good, but
fiddly. A quicker and more robust way is HOT GLUE. Heat up your glue
gun and apply a small amount of glue to completely cover all the
wires. Build the glue up onto the body of the header. Don't be
tempted to touch until it is cool.
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Odd-sized headers
If you need a 14 pin header or any uncommon size that you don't have
as a one-piece header, reach into the supply of headers that you
do have.
You can either:
- Remove one pin from a large header, and then cut the header at the
missing pin to make smaller header, or
- Hot-glue two or more smaller headers together to make a single
large one
"SIL Gadgets"
"SIL" is an acronym for Single-In-Line, and refers to the arrangement of connection pins in single row, which is best for working with solderless breadboards and/or Arduino.
If you are working with breadboards, make up a number of cables that join a male header to various components such as switches, LEDs, speakers and batteries. When you want to test a module it's handy to have pre-wired inputs and outputs that you can re-use for temporary hook-ups.
I have a boxful of these that I've made for various devices, and some of them have been reused over and over for many years.
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Pegboard lash-up installations
When your installation consists of a number of modules connected by jumper cables, an excellent way to make the lash-up installable is to cut a piece of peg-board to size and fix each module in place with cable-ties.
Don't forget, the self-adhesive backing on most breadboards is there to be used, too.
I use this pegboard technique for home automation equipment points, and for larger robots.
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