CYGN-B

[laserist]

The wire wrap wire caddy was just something I made for myself. One for home one for work. I sent you the one for work. The parts are 3D printed. I can always make another. Today you can get a PC board made in no time at all, back in the day it was time consuming. Wire wrap made production slow, but modifications quick. A hardwired machine could evolve relatively easily and quickly with wire wrap. Printed circuit boards and backplanes - not so much.
The rule stating, "There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over." had some validity...

[Greg]

Here's the bela to ilda interface as an easyEDA schematic, and the identical wire wrap circuit about 70 percent complete. Also shown are the four projectors daisy chained, lined up sort of, and running a test pattern from LasershowGen and a Helios DAC.

[laserist]

If I could make one suggestion , orient the trim-pots so that you can adjust them without putting them on an extender card.

[lasermaster1977]

If I could make one suggestion , orient the trim-pots so that you can adjust them without putting them on an extender card.

Boy, that was my first observation, too. I was going to suggest the same thing, but I didn't want to out-guess Greg's basis for doing so. My thought went to, "is the vector board plugging into the edge connector sitting vertically in a card cage, laying horizontal? Move those trim pots so they adjust from the same side."

[Greg]

Thank you for the good suggestions. A couple of points on wire wrapping lore I'm wondering about: Is one supposed to use two wrapping tools, one on each end of the wire so the wires don't have to be long enough to slip up and over an adjacent pin? Also, I've been putting the t44 miniwrap pins into the board by supporting the board near the pin with fingers, gripping the pin with pliers, and giving a yank. Is there a different way to install the pins?

[lasermaster1977]

Thank you for the good suggestions. A couple of points on wire wrapping lore I'm wondering about: Is one supposed to use two wrapping tools, one on each end of the wire so the wires don't have to be long enough to slip up and over an adjacent pin? Also, I've been putting the t44 miniwrap pins into the board by supporting the board near the pin with fingers, gripping the pin with pliers, and giving a yank. Is there a different way to install the pins?

I much prefer the Vector T68/C miniwrap terminals over the smaller T44's. I think you would like them better as well. They are tin platted and intended for 0.042" dia. holes.

My favorite method to install the T68/C pins (gold or tin platted) is to mount a small Xcelite P-3 socket tool in a small, table edge mount vise with the handle down and the socket side up. I drop the pin(s) in the Vector board hole then place the tip side of the pin into the P-3 socket while resting the board flat against the face of the P-3 socket, then lightly tap the top side of the pin down with a small jeweler's brass hammer. The small P-3 socket diameter allows for using this method for inserting adjacent pins on tenth-inch centers. I hope this helps.

I have two types of Vector wire-wrap tools and two types of wire, one type of wire for each tool. Both were made by Vector, both use 28 gauge. wire, both I've had since 1979 or 80. The fastest tool I have is electric, (Vector Model P160-CT-AC), motor driven with built-in circuitry to set the number of wraps the motor spins, from 3 - 8 wraps (if I recall correctly). This tool uses vinyl coated wire that cracks as it wraps around the corners of wire-wrap posts or pins. The other Vector tool looks quite similar to today's Vector P-184-1 tool and is a manual (and used so much the Vector model number and info has rubbed off) finger twist wrapper that uses enamel coated wire that come on smaller spools. In both cases the spools are mounted on the tool opposite the wrapping/spinning end and unspools automatically. Tensioners on both tools are set to put the right amount of wrap resistance on the wire to make sure the wire insulation cracks so the copper wire inside makes good contact on all 4 pin corners for each and every wrap. Well, actually, the manual spinning tool relies on the spinning force your fingers can develop for wire tension.

Both are used for point-to-point or daisy chain wiring. At first or starting post, the wire is held down and against the base of the pin with rubber tipped tool leaving about 1-2 inches of extra length that gets cut off at the pin's base once wrapped. The wrap tool is moved to the next pin (wire unspools so there is just enough wire length to lay neatly between pins with minimal excess), slipped over the pin and another wrap is performed on the next pin.

Some people like to use pre-cut, pre-stripped wire-wrap wire lengths, but I've always preferred unspooling to custom fit lengths.

5 to 7 wraps is a good best practice per wire-wrap post.

After using mostly two and three level wrapping posts on IC sockets and single pins for many, many years, I gained a preference for always using a three level post or pin length. Once done wrapping and testing, I cut the excess pin length off. All my pins from the past were gold platted (hard to come by now) so I kept each and every pin tip I clipped off and have a jar filled with them that is very, very heavy.

[laserist]

Vector made a 2x5 inch rectangular block of stacked perfboard about 3/4 of an inch thick where all the holes were aligned. It allowed you to just pound the pin in. I wasn't any help for modifications obviously. I tended to use a small needle nose and work them in... There were tools that were made up of a steel rod that was turned down to about an 1/8 inch and center drilled so the OD-ID was a bit less than 2x the T44 clearance and thrown in a vise to make the working end oval so the next pin wouldn't get in the way.

[lasermaster1977]

Vector made a 2x5 inch rectangular block of stacked perfboard about 3/4 of an inch thick where all the holes were aligned. It allowed you to just pound the pin in. I wasn't any help for modifications obviously. I tended to use a small needle nose and work them in... There were tools that were made up of a steel rod that was turned down to about an 1/8 inch and center drilled so the OD-ID was a bit less than 2x the T44 clearance and thrown in a vise to make the working end oval so the next pin wouldn't get in the way.

Yessir, and I still have my rectangular block but never used it. I got the push pin tool also but it is the one for .062 hole pins.

[Greg]

There's a whole lot of wiring going on.

[ronhip]

Greg,

If you're trying to impress me - mission accomplished. Just doing my once-a-month YouTube video about elements feels like a lot to me!

( https://www.youtube.com/ronhipschman in case anyone is interesting in subscribing... I'm currently stuck in the lanthanides, but will have some interesting Holmium laser stuff next month! )



Ron

There's a whole lot of wiring going on.