Cable Tracker

wrote in message ...
On Jan 1, 4:24 pm, "Peter Dohm" wrote:

I really like this idea, especially the colored heat shrink version
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you know a good source of small quantities of the required colors?

Writing on white (or at least, light colored) Heat Shrink is a pretty
good way of identifying the lead.

-Bob


Harbor freight?

wrote in message
...
On Jan 1, 4:24 pm, "Peter Dohm" wrote:

I really like this idea, especially the colored heat shrink version
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you know a good source of small quantities of the required colors?

Writing on white (or at least, light colored) Heat Shrink is a pretty
good way of identifying the lead.

-Bob


That's a fair question, and I admit that I haven't had occasion to buy this
sort of thing in about a decade. Locally, in Florida, I used to buy heat
shrink from Electronic Equipment Company, Vance Baldwin Electronics and
occasionally Deanco (if I recall the name correctly) in the Orlando area.

I did a Google search using the keywords: color coded heat shrink tube
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...earch&aq=f&oq=
which gave a lot of results, but most provide only a few of the colors.

The most promising for very small quantities, meaning only a couple of four
foot sticks of each color and size, is
http://www.justradios.com/heatshrinktubing.html and they appear to be set up
for completely automated ordering on line with very economical shipping.
Interestingly, they also look good for large quantities and spools are
shipped free.

I was curious, and also gave a phone call to Cable Specialties. They sell
in a minimum of 100 foot packages, so you would need to purchase 1000 feet
of the same size in addition to the clear and extra black; which is more
than most hobbyists would consider at one time. However, they appear to be
an excellent value for "shop" quantities, and carry a wide variety of types
by Mil-Spec.

Of course, those numbered Brady Labels, with a sleeve of clear heat shrink,
are another old stand by--in addition to your suggestion of writing on light
colored heat shrink, and possibly placing a clear sleeve over the result.

But anything other than a stamping machine will make you crazy if you try to
follow the Mil-Spec, or Boeing, workmanship standards to break wires out of
the resulting bundles!

I hope this helps.

Peter

..
..
..
We buy small quantities for prototyping and then let purchasing do the grunt
work for production.

Mouser will sell you four foot sticks of the stuff in all sizes from 1/16 "
to 4" in any of 6 colors for about a buck fifty each, you pay postage.
Shipping time is almost always less than a week. You slice and dice the
little buggers from the large stick.

See www.mouser.com and then the 5174 series in the upper left hand corner of
page 1027. You might also want to look at digikey to see if they have
anything similar. www.digikey.com

It shrinks with a hair dryer, any temperature above boiling water. The
shrink is almost exactly 50%; a stick bought as one-half inch i.d. will
shrink down to one-quarter inch.

As a refinement of the prior message for a "system", you can identify the
"lead digit" several ways. One is with a double-wide piece of shrink (or
two stacked so close together that there is no mistake of your intent, OR,
you always read from the wire END out, OR, you sacrifice the white color and
read from the white end always, OR .... use your noggin.

I prefer a 3 and 4 "digit" breakout. 3 digit for unspecified wires and 4
digit for specific wires. For example, wires going to the dimmer control
are 3-digit (primary power, control, etc.), but 4-digit departing for the #1
radio, 4-digit to the panel floods, etc..

***************************************
One last plea ... I wrote all this stuff up in a Kitplanes article several
years ago. Honest to gesundheit I don't have the time to keep my web page
up with all the articles, although each one of them is in a separate zip
file with all the photos and such. If some kind person is willing to keep
the web page up, then all one of you kind newsgroup denizens would have to
do is go to the web page and there is the article, available for download,
and we could all review it and bring it up to date.

THere are about six years worth of columns. It takes about two hours to
format, check, write the index page, and such for each article. If one of
you kind gentlemen or ladies would like to do one or two a week, in a year
we'd have them all done and up to date. Any takers?

www.rstengineering.com/kitplanes
***************************************

Jim

--
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it."
--Aristotle


"Peter Dohm" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
On Jan 1, 4:24 pm, "Peter Dohm" wrote:

I really like this idea, especially the colored heat shrink version
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you know a good source of small quantities of the required colors?

Writing on white (or at least, light colored) Heat Shrink is a pretty
good way of identifying the lead.

-Bob

Peter Dohm wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Jan 1, 4:24 pm, "Peter Dohm" wrote:

I really like this idea, especially the colored heat shrink version
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you know a good source of small quantities of the required colors?

If you've got a Fry's Electronics, they sell yard-long sections of heat
shrink in a wide range of sizes in a variety of colors.

Ron Wanttaja

On Jan 2, 8:15*am, "Peter Dohm" wrote:

I really like this idea, especially the colored heat shrink version
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leaping some distance outside of the box, it occurs to me that
downstairs, with the electronic stuff, I've got hook-up wire in
virtually every color of the rainbow as well two-color stripes.

No, it won't shrink but I was homing-in on the IDENTIFICATION of the
leads, which has always been the problem a few years down the road.

I can't get to that part of the shop at present but I think it has the
potential to identify wires if held in place with clear heat-shrink.

Another thot is some glass BEADS I've got around here somewhere, which
would serve once the wire to be identified was threaded through the
appropriate colors, which were then sealed to the lead with heat-
shrink OR a dot of crazy glue... or some damn thing.

wrote:
On Jan 1, 4:24 pm, "Peter Dohm" wrote:

I really like this idea, especially the colored heat shrink version
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you know a good source of small quantities of the required colors?

Writing on white (or at least, light colored) Heat Shrink is a pretty
good way of identifying the lead.

-Bob


I got some about a month ago when I was in Fastenal for something else.
They are located everywhere.

http://www.fastenal.com/web/locations.ex