Versatile, Cable Management System

thingiverse

Firstly, this does look better in the real situation, the photos do not flatter it. So, I wanted a cabling system for my Simple Printrbot. See Instructions. 20/9/14 Uploaded 'Clip basic open 2 ends 5mm v9' and its spring part. Hope its useful for those who prefered this option. 9/5/15 Have uploaded a hinged opener to help installation of these clips. The pictures, I hope, show how it works. Instructions It has what I call an "outpost fixing". I have provided a single unit, a 4piece, and an 8piece. These, can be mounted with a small countersunk screw, or the familiar cable tie. These hold the clips in place. There is an "over clip", that can be used to hold a small bunch of wires if that is all you need. But I use the "Basic clip front open", to attach the string of clips to the outpost fixing. I have included a front mount, this is used on the Jon Lawrence, front mount that I have, the holes line up, and that was all I needed at the front. At the back I used the 8piece outpost fixing, and cable tied it to the simple frame that the mother board used to cling to. (I have it set back using my "Hinged Motherboard holder". http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:327793) You will need to scale the Z height, to make them taller, as I have only provided the basic 5mm versions, it's dead easy in Cura and Repetier. For front and back mounting, I suggest 40mm high, then a "spring clip" to accomodate movement maybe 10mm high, then a couple of 20mm high basic clips, some more spring clips, some 10mm high basic clips, and more springs, and a mix of 5m clips and springs at the top, to allow movement. I use good old curtain wire (the wire used to hold net curtains up), to hold the string of clips together, and this also holds the whole array, up and out of the way. It is strong enough if you needed it, to have the whole array horizontal. Make sure you make it long enough to go into the clips that sit in the outpost fixing, this keeps the whole thing steady. The whole array allows twisting movement as well. I have a variations of clips, and can't really decide which is best, front open or back open, or indeed the front and back open - held in the middle, I have provided an STL of this but it is not quiet there yet - it needs tweeking. I have attempted to make an opener, to assist in holding the clip open while inserting wires, again, it could be improved I feel. I can say that I am very happy the way this works, it holds all of the cables (motor, fan, fan, light, extruder, thermistor and sensor) from the front to the back in a tidy fashion. And of course, one can add to it making it longer or shorter if need be, and the number of clips one puts in the lenght is personal choice, totally closed or more exposed. This could be adapted for other machines too.