September 8, 2022

This wrapping machine makes wire harness creation a breeze

from arduino.cc

Many products require the use of wire harnesses, which are essentially bundles of cabling that connect one subsystem to another, such as a car engine’s sensors to the ECU. DIY projects can also find themselves needing one, but having to manage the wiring without tangles or unwanted bends can be a challenge.

YouTuber Mr. Innovative has created a simple wire harness wrapping machine that takes the user’s choice of tape and quickly spins it around the bundle. He started by cutting out the base and fixed ring out of plywood before milling the spinning ‘C’ disk from acrylic.

Once these parts were attached together and a set of bearings/pulleys were added around the moving disk, a timing belt was looped on one half to an awaiting stepper motor.

This motor is responsible for quickly rotating the tape around the harness within the disk, and it is controlled by an Arduino Nano. The wiring was simplified through the use of a custom PCB, which contains inputs for power and activation, an A4988 stepper motor driver board, and additional power management circuitry.

Altogether, this project transforms the otherwise tedious process of bundling several cables together into a far more efficient one with a simple press of a limit switch. You can see the project in more detail below.