I was an Electronics technician back in the 70's and spent many hours wire wrapping, I think I still have a battery operated wire wrapping tool. Keep up the great videos!
@koz5 жыл бұрын
A wire-wrapping tool/'bit' would be a great addition to my ES-121 screwdriver :)
@alaskawoodman5 жыл бұрын
Yep - had a battery wire wrapping tool myself. Did lots of wire wrapping in telecom closets and data centers. My boss used to give me grief about using the batt operated tool, it wasn't for real tech's....
@paulrautenbach5 жыл бұрын
I used to have a very cheap wire wrapping tool run on batteries. I loved it. It did a much better job of wire wrapping than the hand tool and was way quicker. I wish I still had it.
@alaskawoodman5 жыл бұрын
@@paulrautenbach You are not kidding - price one....
@Nicksperiments5 жыл бұрын
But are the electronics for the battery powered wrapping tool also wire wrapped?
@johncrunk80385 жыл бұрын
Like they say -- "if I had a penny for every ...". I can't begin to count the number of wire-wraps I did in my 15 years with IBM. The weekends were for engineering changes and we would rip-and-tear to get everything working by Monday. Thanks for the memories!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I was astonished about the many stories which are told in the comments. It seems everybody has some memories of Wire Wrapping...
@rogerbarton4972 жыл бұрын
Same here with ICL, Burroughs, Perkin Elmer and Mohawk.
@OliNorwell5 жыл бұрын
I can't believe I didn't know about this, I have wrapping wire and all of a sudden I think I am going to be using it a lot more. Thanks for the hint!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@paulrichmond69035 жыл бұрын
Don’t forget the modified wrap tools. They would wrap 1-2 turns of insulated wire around the pin before wrapping the conductor. This provided a much sturdier connection as it better supported the connecting wire. Very important if there were physical shocks or vibration.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I think You could do it with the tool I have. I just forgot :-(
@rickscheck53305 жыл бұрын
Wire wrapping was used on the Apollo Mission computers. Highly reliable.
@Brausepaul1235 жыл бұрын
Also welding wires kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJe4mXlpd6-ieMU
@Breadbored.5 жыл бұрын
Neat. I wouldn't have guessed that at all.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Interesting. I did not know that!
@rrowan3275 жыл бұрын
Multiple thumbs up, for finding the arpanet map of 1977 (very cool) and mentioning my hero Bil Herd. Been using wire wrap since mid 1980s. I have the same wrap tool but mine is gold color.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I think you deserve the Golden tool for such a long usage!
@DCFusor5 жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess Mine's gold too - I was actually jealous of your blue one. When I got mine, they were all gold... FWIW, the stripper in mine nicked wire pretty often. That's why I went with a box of various lengths and colors of pre stripped stuff. Quality wire strippers that went to 30 awg weren't on every street corner in the '70s, not hardly. There were some adjustable ones that would go that low, kind of but they tended to eat wire - just not repeatably precise enough.
@mahudson35475 жыл бұрын
I unearthed three in various toolboxes - all gold. One was a 22awg tool and I can’t even remember what that was for...
@DCFusor5 жыл бұрын
@@mahudson3547 DEC backplanes - the yellow wire pictured in the vid, were 22 awg. Only later on did stuff go down to #30.
@DCFusor5 жыл бұрын
Wow - I was a DEC field service guy (that's #48818 to you) and maintained some of that node at ARPA - I can vouch for the compliment of machines there, the modem (PDP-11/40 + a rack of BB&N modem stuff) and the main work machine - the PDP-15, were "mine". Back in the day I bought a ton of pre-cut and stripped WW wire, tried out all the tools, wound up mostly using a hand tool (like pictured here), as the manual and C battery guns had "issues. Still have that stuff - I didn't wind up building as many Kaypro/Xerox-820 clones as I'd planned. I'd point out a couple of things - one is that you can hold your long-pinned breakout board into the perfboard with a WW connection, so you don't need solder to hold it on (at least loosely). Second, it pays to put the wires you're most sure of on first, as multilayer wire wraps can get into some real interesting comedy of unwrapping to change one that's under two others...which are under ... and so on. You really do not want to try and reuse a wire-end as said here - the nicks you put in it using it the first time will give trouble later. It maybe should have been mentioned that there needs to be a little insulation involved, so at least part of the first turn (the rules used to say at least one whole turn) is insulated wire. That way a little spring-back won't make for shorts later on.
@dikl26895 жыл бұрын
#180316
@boblewis55585 жыл бұрын
#64407 - still have my original badge!
@DCFusor5 жыл бұрын
@@boblewis5558 That was a great job, if I'd had any idea I might have postponed my career moves for a few more years. I wound up mid-atlantic support in record time. Met Ken O by accident up in Maynard...super good guy. Upvote for DEC guy - we had the world in our hands for awhile.
@followthetrawler5 жыл бұрын
#185184 :) in fact years later when HP acquired 3Com I got my old badge number back but with 10 prepended.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Unfortunately, I forgot my number. I was there from 1988 to 1995
@donstratton14015 жыл бұрын
FYI, wire wrapping goes back to at least the early 50's if not even farther back. Wire wrapping as a technique has been used since the late 1800's, although the first device specifically built to the standards we now think of as "wire wrapping" was not introduced until 1953. I VERY much applaud you making this video, as virtually all young engineers I know are totally unaware of the technology and are generally blown away to find out how it can "outperform" solder in specific applications (thus the use in Apollo et al). You just made the world a slightly better place. :)
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I was overwhelmed by the may reactions. I did not expect such an echo.
@robertthompson59084 жыл бұрын
I love this video! I discovered wire wrapping a few years ago when I started working on vintage 1970's stereo amplifiers. I even bought a wire wrapping tool. Recently I started building a project with a microcontroller and several boards and it occurred to me why not use wire wrapping instead of Dupont connectors or soldering wires directly to the boards, or spending money on fancy connectors. Apparently it wasn't a crazy idea!
@AndreasSpiess4 жыл бұрын
Very cool!
@z51bob5 жыл бұрын
Glad to see that I’m not the only one still using wire wrap for projects. Just bought a new ok tool - lost the old one I built my altair clone with. I like the built in stripper also, you should wrap clockwise 6-8 turns. The dupont connectors are great for breadboarding and I use them a lot. However, if you want a reliable prototype or 1 off part, wirewrap is much better.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are right. But I am lefthanded. So my wraps are the other way round. So far I had no complaints from the electrons ;-) I tried to remove one of the relatively short wraps and only tore the wire apart. I made them shorter because often we only have short pins, not as in the past. But like that, you still get 2 or even 3 connections on one pin.
@r1273m5 жыл бұрын
Well this takes me back! I thought I was the only one here to still have WW equipment. I always use the stripper in the middle of the tool and if you're planning on buying a hand WW tool make sure it does the "modified wrap". This puts a turn of insulated wire around the post first and prevents wire breaking at this critical point. For components such as resistors and capacitors I use single sided WW pins which have a notch on the upper side to solder the component wire to. I have built Z80, 6809 and 68HC11 boards in the dim distant past using this technique. I remember being at Plessey in the early 1980's when computerised WW was introduced for wiring backplanes; it reduced the time per board from almost a full day to just 20 minutes each! Bob
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I think modern 3D printer technology would help to build such a "computerized wire wrapper" ;-)
@ecky_thump5 жыл бұрын
Brings back memories... like others who have commented, I too still have my wire wrap tools (battery operated and manual) bought from RS back in the early 90s. One point to note (not sure if this was mentioned by someone else) but you don’t really need a separate stripping tool as that is already built into the handle (see small hole and black metal plate with a slot). I found this perfectly adequate for prototyping but perhaps not so good for large boards with many hundreds of connections, but then you would use the electric tool anyway. I had a preference to use blue wire for data lines, green for address lines, red for Vcc, black for Gnd.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
The hole was mentioned a few times. I tried it but was not happy with it. This is why I used my "trusted" tool.
@ZaneDaMagicPufferDragon5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for bringing this forgotten technique for wiring circuits together without the need of soldering!!!!! I’m impressed with how well it works with detaching wires almost as much as I was immediately blown away by just how effective it was at connecting them in the first place!!!!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
This is one of the reasons for the video ;-)
@zaprodk5 жыл бұрын
I've never done wire wrapping myself, but i've understood being told that it only works (reliably) on square pins, since you get that gas-tight connections when the corners cut into the wire, whereas you don't get this on round pins/legs.
@alaskawoodman5 жыл бұрын
Having done tens of thousands of telecom connections in the 80's and even 90's I can tell you that square or round work just fine. The higher end equipment had round pins.
@zaprodk5 жыл бұрын
@@alaskawoodman cool. Good to know :)
@boblewis55585 жыл бұрын
The correct pin to use is a square one. The reason is that the connection when done properly, actually cold-welds the wire to the pin. Round pins can work, but I would dispute their superiority. Neither DEC (Where I worked, as did Andreas), IBM nor HP AFAIK ever used round pins and they made about as high end stuff as you could find anywhere. If you unwrap a pin that's been wire-wrapped a long time, the weld points on the pin can usually be seen quite easily. About the only unreliable thing about backplanes made like this (very common) was if the auto wire-wrapped machine broke a wire, it would redo the link, but very occasionally the broken piece of bare wire would end up causing a short between backplane pins. I had a very intermittent fault on a DEC DX11 IBM peripheral interface once, that I spent a whole weekend troubleshooting with a support engineer. We could consistently cause a diagnostic loop failure by rattling the backplane pins but we never found the piece of wire! It required a complete new backplane ordering and fitting to fix the problem. It was real fun and games unplugging and refitting all the modules (around 90 of them) back into the backplane. 😱😁
@anullhandle5 жыл бұрын
@@alaskawoodman , I wonder if there's any belcor specs floating around on the interwebs on round pins? Mil stuff was all 025 square posts that I've seen. You could feel the tink tink tink from the cold welds when unwrapping them.
@neilbarnett30465 жыл бұрын
IIRC, there was a type of wire that could be wrapped without stripping, this could only be used with square pins, as the corners could pierce the (very thin) insulation. If you stripped the wire, then round pins were fine. I think the square pins would make the most reliable connection, though, as the wrapping wire is tensioned at the corners and makes the best contact there, with the least oxidation.
@_aiborie Жыл бұрын
Fascinating stuff! Recently bought that same multi-colored wire for a small project and somehow ended up watching this video 😊
@AndreasSpiess Жыл бұрын
I use these 30AWG wires for several things in my lab. Particularly to correct errors on my PCBs. They are very thin and easy to solder also to small pins.
@_aiborie Жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess Appreciate the response! I'll be using them to repair PCB traces indeed. Amused by the history behind it, also watched the Wire Wrap video you recommended by Bil Herd. Thank you!
@RaspberryPieman5 жыл бұрын
In 1963, I was a 'Youth in Training' GPO telephone engineer and was sent to West Byfleet Telephone Exchange in Surrey, UK, to do some wire-wrapping at their new exchange. I think I used an electrically driven gun. I later moved on to be a computer mainframe engineer and worked on the CDC 6600 at London University, which appears on the bottom right of the Arpanet Logical map, March 1977, shown at 1:41 in your video. Thanks for sharing that and bringing back so many memories. I must get a wire-wrapping tool and give it a go again.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are not the only. Many viewers described their experience in the 70s or 80s. However, you were pretty early with wire wrapping ;-)
@stepkaf5 жыл бұрын
Wow, this is really cool! Yesterday I was completing my project, although I love programming and electronics, I found out that my shaky hands are not compatible with soldering. This is really cool way to connect stuff. Thanks for this video!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Glad to read that it can help to enjoy your hobby even more!
@S0K0N0MI4 жыл бұрын
The accent made the tutorial 10 time better. Thanks Andreas!
@AndreasSpiess4 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@ollieb98755 жыл бұрын
YAS! I just got my tool and wire and it is working great, just as you said it would. Very impressed. Thank you Andreas!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
That was fast! Glad it works.
@ollieb98755 жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess it even says OK INDUSTRIES
@michael.a.covington4 ай бұрын
Excellent idea! The proliferation of row headers means that wire wrapping is again convenient and useful.
@AndreasSpiess4 ай бұрын
Glad you liked it!
@rkaid5775 жыл бұрын
Very interesting! I wasn't alive in the 70s (and I was a child in the 80s) so I didn't know about this technique. Thanks for showing it!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@damson34136 ай бұрын
I remember reading about this in Forrest Mims III's Getting Started in Electronics book when I was 12. I'm now 36 and I have just purchased my first spool of wire, a tool, and a bunch of sockets both breakoff and solid 2.54mm arduino types. I am gonna have so much rapid-prototyping fun with this stuff. :)
@AndreasSpiess6 ай бұрын
Cool. Indeed, this is an old technique...
@MadHatter1234565 жыл бұрын
Hammer! Wieso sehe ich das erst jetzt? Habe gerade letzte Woche erst dutzende kleine Kabel verlötet... Das hätte mir einen Haufen Arbeit gespart... Wie auch immer, habe soeben bestellt - vielen Dank für den genialen Tip!!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Gern geschehen. Einfach den Kanal abonieren und den "Alarmknopf" drücken ;-)
@vonries5 жыл бұрын
I bought a wire wrapping tool back in the 70's when I first wanted to get started in electronics. However, I never knew what in the world I was supposed to do with it. I also bought some 555 timer chips and had no idea what to do with those either. Sadly I lost interest before I ever figured out what to do with either of them. Well I have finally come back to electronics again. I have lost to many brain cells to ever be any good at it, but at least (thanks to you) I now know what that crazy looking tool is/was supposed to do. Thanks!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome! I think you are not the only who did not exactly know how this technique works.
@garymucher95903 жыл бұрын
I realize this is an older video, but this just now popped up in my suggestions list. Funny, I made literally tens of thousands of wire wrap connections in my days. And yes, I did have a manual wire wrap tool. But we mostly used hand held power wire wrap guns. Amazing how fast you can wire up even a difficult circuit. But than I also used through hole and even surface mount PC boards as well. Thumbs Up!
@AndreasSpiess3 жыл бұрын
I think it had its high time before the availability of cheap and fast PCBs. But viewers wrote that it still is used in old telephone systems...
@benary56203 жыл бұрын
Riesigen Dank, dass Du mich über das Video auf diese Technik gebracht hast. Ich bin Hobbyist und habe oft bei Prototypen irgendwelche Fehler drin gehabt, die sich bereits gelötet schlecht reparieren ließen. Beim Wire Wrapping kann man wunderbar nachbessern.
@AndreasSpiess3 жыл бұрын
Das ist sicher ein Vorteil...
@patprop745 жыл бұрын
Huh! interesting old tech! while depopulating older electronics, i was always impressed about the manufacture abilities, to wrap tiny wires around a pin so well! now i know how it was done! Thank you for showing us.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@VitalyStockman5 жыл бұрын
What an amazing discovery! Literally saves a lot of time and creates new opportunities. Thank you for bringing it up, Andreas!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@daveoatway61265 жыл бұрын
The old is new again! I did wire wrapping for many projects in the 70s. Very easy and reliable. I still use my gold tool today. Great to see you introducing the technology to new users. Great video as usual.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Thank you!
@jhcanepa4 жыл бұрын
I Andreas! Love your channel and watch it all the time! I used to use wrapping for all my projects back in the 80's. My largest project had over 6000 wire wrap connections for a stage lighting controller. It still works today.
@AndreasSpiess4 жыл бұрын
Thank you! This technology was very reliable, but also quite expensive to produce. Today's CAD with cheap 2 or 4 layser PCBs are also quite nice ;-)
@deangreenhough34795 жыл бұрын
My wire wrapping tool arrived today and I have to say, beats duponts anyday. I love this technic and you can really makes things look organised. Well worth the time to invest in
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your feedback!
@jstro-hobbytech2 жыл бұрын
I've decided to start wire wrapping for quick painless prototyping. They make long headers so why not. Thanks Andreas, yours was first video in my search
@AndreasSpiess2 жыл бұрын
Cool!
@pdrg5 жыл бұрын
I also like wire wrap for any experimental work - in the time it takes to find and heat up an iron, I've already connected the board :)
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Another advantage!
@AlexSlaets Жыл бұрын
Yes. I’ll use this. Great. I once in 1978 did a student job at Siemens Augsburg in fehlersuche of wire wrapped mainframe boards.
@AndreasSpiess Жыл бұрын
Finding errors was not easy. And correcting it sometimes also not...
@AlexSlaets Жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess well, at Siemens the wrapped boards were put in a machine which tested all connections and output an ist-soll vergleich. Zb connection from AB12 to BC06 shouldn’t be there. Or D12 to BC34 is not present. Then I put high voltage on connections that should not be there to get rid of residue. And I wrapped missing connections. An I ate a lot of zwetchendatchi with the women in Fehlersuche ;-)
@AndreasSpiess Жыл бұрын
@@AlexSlaets I had to google "Zwetschgendatschi" ;-)
@centexrails5 жыл бұрын
Glad to see this video. This is exactly how all our prototype and small quantity boards were made. We also added conformal coat to secure and isolate the pin side of a board. If coated and in need of modification, you have to use a solvent to remove the coat. I'm not a fan of Dupont wires because it is too easy for them to become loose and of course the 1 to 1 issue but everything has its uses.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I never heard about using a conformal coating on wire wrapped boards!
@AndersJackson5 жыл бұрын
I wire wraped a PDP-8 to change current circuit communication to voltage level RS 232. PDP-8 was really a simple architecture, without even a stack and CALL- and RET-instructions. Ah, the memories of wrapping together a small computers with a 6809, 8085 or 8031 and some ram, rom and IO devices.
@boblewis55585 жыл бұрын
The joys of the "Omnibus"! Unibus on PDP11s frequently needed the bus grant jumper adding or removing for config changes from different boards. SO easy to get wrong though!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
My Z80 (TRS-80 was already on a PCB. No need for wire wrapping there. But at other places.
@AndersJackson5 жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess PDP 8 is older then both TRS-80, the z80 CPU and then 8080. Yes, some of the earlier 8080-8085 (and later Z80) based computers was also wire wrapped. Later was based on PCB:s, as it isn't as expensive to mass produce. In the University back in 1982, when I first studied Computer, we used wire wrapping a lot. Great for prototyping. The PDP 8 was the first mini computer in the world, which means that it was much smaller then previous computers.It could be bought by a research group in a University, in the offices. Not like the previous computer. Yes, a mini computer back then weight about 200-300 kg, might have a HD and probably tapes as storage. And several terminals to work from. The PDP-8 was built by wire wrapping flip chips together. Those was basically the same functions in later TTL chip, but by discrete components on a PCB. PDP-11 was also a mini computer, but PDP-8 was a 12 bit computer, and the PDP-11 was a 16 bit computer, and it was inspiration for the 68000 CPU:s.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I used to work for DEC. So I know parts of the history. But most of it using VAX computers and clusters
@professorEduardoBrasil5 жыл бұрын
You brought me back to my internship in the 80's. Thank you. I still have these tools and they're excellent. I also recommend. Reliable computers like PDP I have worked with were wired wrapped. Memories...
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I am glad this video initialized so many memories !
@santopino25465 жыл бұрын
I worked for the the Italian division of the German Industrial automation company Hartman& Braun for 13 years, for several years from 1987 I worked on the Contronic 3 automation system for power stations, a project could be formed by about 50 two meter tall cabinets filled with eurocard size electronic cards all wire wrapped on the back plane, I was in the testing department, and had quite a job correcting wiring and simulating operations. Luckily we got two computer controlled machines that were capable together with an operator to reduce a two week cabling job on a cabinet to two days, with near zero mistakes reducing drastically my time for checking. Today we use DCS and 99% of the wireing has been substituted with SW.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I think we are all glad we do no more need extensive wire wrapping. But sometimes it still can help.
@santopino25465 жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess I'm not using wire wrap for my prototypes, for quick prototypes I prefer using copper strip pre drilled breadboards, I use a 3mm drill bit to interrupt the copper strips where needed and use wire wrap wire cut to size for jumps. I'm also use the UV Positive Photoresist and etching method, and the CNC milling and drilling method.
@djtoddles87505 жыл бұрын
Thanks for keeping these old-school techniques alive, it never hurts to have numerous options. And there's a kind of spooky artistic-ness to it, it just looks cool on the bigger boards with more wiring. Great vid as usual!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
It maybe looks more complicated than it is...
@noamw38415 жыл бұрын
In my high school, the teachers (and students) use wirewrapping for connecting components in the projects that seniors do. Has been this way for a very long time :)
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Must have been for a very long time. The technology seems to be forgotten somehow.
@keesnuyt83655 жыл бұрын
Very reliable. I used it around 1980 to build a 8 kByte memory expansion board for my Commodore PET 2001. I designed it myself and it still worked when I last tried it 3 years ago. The base was a Eurocard(?). All IC's went in wirewrapping DIL sockets. The only soldering was for a connector, the IC power pins and the decoupling capacitors for all the ICs.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
This was how we did it back then. Lots of parallel address and data lines. It is interesting that many of these boards survived somehow...
@joeblow80475 жыл бұрын
This technology is still in common use in the telecom industry on wire frames. Yes we use slightly lager wire (22 to 24) gauge.
@tonysouthern30175 жыл бұрын
Really? Insulation displacement connections like Krone is super common but haven’t seen wire wrap blocks in telcos for YEARS. As a matter of interest, where have you seen this used recently?
@pileofstuff5 жыл бұрын
@@tonysouthern3017 Not who you asked, but I was re-working some T1s on a DSX last week and had to break out my wire wrap tools for the job.
@joeblow80475 жыл бұрын
I work for a major telecom in the midwest and still have some solder blocks.
@RobinCernyMitSuffix5 жыл бұрын
@@tonysouthern3017 The reason is just that ther are old installations out there. I live also in Switzerland like Andreas does and was a former Electrician (they do most of the "wire" part of telecommunication infrastructures), and I worked on modern Terminals like the VS system from Reichle de Massari (R&M) which is really REALLY easy to use and extremely fast. And I had to solder or wirewrap on older Terminals, some are with screw terminals etc... and I worked mostly in one small City with around 25'000 citizens. And if you know that like I do, it's really not surprising why DSL (which uses these connections) has so much trouble with speed and reliability ^^
@wherami2 жыл бұрын
Wow i cant imagine how much time that took. Just amazing
@AndreasSpiess2 жыл бұрын
Indeed!
@davebeckham54295 жыл бұрын
This remembers my olden days during the '90s where I was involved in the wrapping for the Thompson telephone exchange back panel with mains operated wrapping gun. - Thanks, Andreas Spiess.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@dr.-ing.andreaskeibel37222 жыл бұрын
With the re-growing community of electronic hobby-enthusiasts, this wire wrapping technology along with the "Fädeltechnik" using wiring pencils, these almost forgotten techs do experience a sort of a revival. WhenI was 14 (long time ago) I had built a wiring pencil from a full metal emptied ballpen core/refill (remove color and ball, clean it). The sharp ring at the tip is great for cutting the wire after soldering, by just pressing it to the lead. I still use it and can prototype quite fast with it. You can go from pin to pin with it. Turn at least one wrap around, then go to the next... Signal per Signal can be completed by this in a fast manner. A tiny holding contraption to fixate the wire while wrapping around a pin was quickly set up, also the holder for the tiny wire coil at the end of the pen.
@AndreasSpiess2 жыл бұрын
I remember the "Fädeltechnik", too. As you write, the tools were cheaper than for wire-wrapping. But AFAIK it was not used in products.
@Ruudrad5 жыл бұрын
Hi Andreas, glad my tip made into your well organised video overview, congrats! I enjoyed the benefits of wire wrap in many projects and I am happy that it gets a broader attention! Thanks for showing my name in your video detail, as as I said: the technology is old, but fortunately the wires do not know about that....
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome! If you read the comments this technology is very well known. But forgotten somehow... I think we helped many good memories to re-appear.
@bardenegri215 жыл бұрын
I had no idea that's what 'wire wrapping wire' ment on AliExpress. I assumed it was for making transformers or motor coils. Getting some to try it out. Thank you!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome. Sometimes old men are quite useful ;-)
@rogerbarton17902 ай бұрын
That small black piece of steel in the middle of the handle is a wire stripper. Push the wire through, slide it into the slot and pull the insulation off. You MUST insert the wire so that when you pull, the cutting blade presses onto the body of the tool. Get it the wrong way round and you will bend the blade. You can get wrapping wire that doesn't need stripping, but you need special pins with square edges that bite into the insulation. In the 1970s I worked for Burroughs Machines who had terminals in every branch of NatWest, Barclays, Midland and Yorkshire banks, and it was a regular task to do modifications to the wire-wrapped backplane.
@AndreasSpiess2 ай бұрын
You are right about the stripper. However, I never liked it :-( I am not sure if you still get this "special" wire. But it was very handy. And indeed, even some "programming" was done back then on the backplane by changing wires. I just watched a video about the restauration of a PDP11 with lots of wire wraps...
@rogerbarton17902 ай бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess I haven't done any wire wrapping since the 1980s, I gave all my wrapping stuff away, something I now regret as I'm thinking about using it for prototyping. I'm not too keen on breadboards. Did you ever use the the method wrapping where you didn't need to strip the insulation? The pins were square in section with sharp corners which pierced the insulation as you performed the wrap. IIRC the wire was a special type too.
@AndreasSpiessАй бұрын
@@rogerbarton1790 I think we had such wires back then. But as with you, it is a long time ago ;-)
@sanjaybhatikar3 жыл бұрын
Wow, this is incredible!
@AndreasSpiess3 жыл бұрын
Indeed this was an interesting technology and huge computers were built like that.
@williamwatson15325 жыл бұрын
I still have a Z80 system I made this way - wire wrap was my go to method for prototyping. But a sea of blue wires could be a problem when debugging so thanks for the tip of using coloured wires. I will now track down my old WW tool...
@Rcbeacon5 жыл бұрын
Back in the early 80s I made quite complex Z80 and 6502 systems using wire-wrap IC sockets and thousands of wires. Very tedious but eventually satisfying when it worked. I still use the same wire for jumpers as it's coated in high-temperature plastic and very easy to solder. Just yesterday I was wire wrapping a couple of small DC-DC converter modules onto a board.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
The Chinese Wires are not very heat-resistant. But colored ;-)
@Rcbeacon5 жыл бұрын
I think the wire we originally used was 30 AWG, the conductor was silver coated with teflon insulation. No internet and very little mail-order back then so we had to go through manufacturers agents, wait long delivery times and pay high prices. We used hand tools for wire wrap IC sockets and connectors on boards but had electric tools for the larger size wiring between panels. Another technique we used was to plan out CPU-RAM-EPROM-IO wiring between sockets then cut-twist-solder wire-wrap wire using standard IC sockets. A lot of it was data and address bus runs so easily duplicated. This method made a lower profile and more robust board. These boards were only clocked at 2-4MHz so wire layout wasn't too much of an issue for one-off industrial controllers.
@hanpahomeautomation41015 жыл бұрын
The main disadvantage is that it builds height and the long pins has a risk of bending, causing short-circuits. I prefer soldering and use a small piece of experimental circuit board for external components. Another method I've used is experimental boards and solder using wire wrapping wire. Since this wire is so thin, it's rather easy to add more connections later since you can easily have 4-5 wires in the same hole. Heat up again with the soldering iron, stick in another wire. Doesn't build height.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
This is another use of these wires. A few viewers mentioned they do it this way,
@raffyturc5 жыл бұрын
Never done wire-wrapping..but these are what I use to 'wire' my prototype circuits(protoboards/dual layer) with soldering.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
A few viewers do it the same way.
@gregorymccoy67972 жыл бұрын
I am absolutely going to try this out.
@AndreasSpiess2 жыл бұрын
Enjoy it!
@JamesFraley4 жыл бұрын
I learned wire wrapping many years ago. I still find it very useful.
@AndreasSpiess4 жыл бұрын
That is why I thought I show it also to the younger people
@mt-qc2qh5 жыл бұрын
Great video. I've been wire wrapping my prototypes since the seventies. It is much more convenient than etching pubs and the project is testable quickly.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
PCBs these days also became quite comfortable. But for special purposes this old tech is still good :-)
@Stuart-AJC5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for this, I did not know it was still possible to buy the tool and wire to do this. I just purchased what you demonstrated, it arrived today, and works great. Thanks again for all your great videos, with so much useful information.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your feedback!
@Fridelain3 жыл бұрын
The tool you buy on Aliexpress has a wire stripper integrated in the handle. You can DIY a toold by drilling a small hole on the side near the end if a small tube, such as the plastic tube from a q-tip, or a in pen lead. Feed the wire from the end through the inside of the tube and the hole you drilled.
@AndreasSpiess3 жыл бұрын
I know of the integrated stripper, but I did not like it. Maybe I was using it the wrong way...
@patrickcardon16439 ай бұрын
Remembering drooling over the tools in my Tandy books and catalogs way back then, but ended up buying a soldering iron
@AndreasSpiess9 ай бұрын
They do nor replace a soldering iron. So you made a good decision
Жыл бұрын
Wonderful tool. it save lots of time. Thank you for recording the video.
@AndreasSpiess11 ай бұрын
You are welcome!
@lluisllimargas26375 жыл бұрын
Oh man! this reminds me of digital transmissions X-connections of the 90s! One more tip for beginners: the black sharp metal piece placed at the side of the wire wrapping tool is to peel off plastic covers of the wire, no extra tool is required.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are right. I tried it but did not like it :-(
@rigfix5 жыл бұрын
The tool and the wire wrap wire has been laying in my workshop for year, newer tried it. This video was great, I now know how to use it :) Thanks!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@deividasvrubliauskas55849 ай бұрын
3:12 Whoa. Didn't expect the very cheapest listing of that little tool to be the cost of 4 units of esp32. Decisions, decisions for a student to make 😅
@AndreasSpiess8 ай бұрын
Maybe the manufacturing series are not as big as for the ESP32 ;-)
@Forkin5 жыл бұрын
This is something i want to try someday in future because i am too young to remember use of this. Thanks for links.
@lemd495 жыл бұрын
Wonderful video reminding me of good times doing EE lab projects at university. We were even given electric wire wrapping machine. And hours spend troubleshooting mistakes in sticking to the wiring lists...
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I think you still get these machines. But they are very expensive...
@lemd495 жыл бұрын
Andreas Spiess yes indeed, I believe we were told the cost was 700 USD (1975 USD) !
@simonbaxter80015 жыл бұрын
I still use wire wrapping today for digital logic circuit prototyping! I have an automatic wire wrapping gun and wire strippers specifically for wire wrap wire which cuts and strips the correct length of insulation. Made quite a few one off production units for customers back in the 80's just using EUROCARD size wire wrap boards!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
So you are equipped much better than I am! I only use it to replace Dupont wires, so the tool is ok for these few wraps.
@robroysyd2 жыл бұрын
Just another gent who did a lot of wire rapping in the '70s. Much easier with a mains powered tool and a good wire stripper with a length guide. If I recall correctly there was even some instances of larger pins and wires for higher currents. Using round pins is not ideal, it's the sharp edges of the square pin biting into the solid copper wire that makes the joint so reliable.
@AndreasSpiess2 жыл бұрын
I agree with the power tool and the square pins! For a small amount of connections, the manual tool is ok. But for a computer backplane...
@Uncle_Buzz5 жыл бұрын
1:40 THAT is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. Cheers! Chris.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I found it by chance. And as an old DEC employee of course I liked it ;-)
@MakenModify5 жыл бұрын
I use wire wrap at my day job to build automated test equipment for pcb and electronics testing. It's perfect for all one off jobs and for what i do way better than soldering. Learned it fom my old college (and mentor). Thumb up for the technique and this great video ;)
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Thank you!
@followthetrawler5 жыл бұрын
I spent many hours wire-wrapping in the 70's - I then rewrapped a VAX 11/780 backplane in 1989 - tens of thousands of wraps over a week because there was no replacement in Europe - got 3 wraps wrong in all of those - I wouldnt ever want to go back to it :)
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I can imagine... But back then we did not have multi-layered PCBs and high-density ICs. So it was probably the only way to do so many connections in a small space.
@bobbonham48235 жыл бұрын
In the 80's I worked at Singer - Link Flight Simulation translating schematics to wire wrapping lists for the factory workers to wire wrap backplanes and circuit cards. I still use it for occasional personal projects.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Obviously, this technology was used in many industries...
@SVader113 жыл бұрын
The wire wrapping tool comes with its own wire stripper. It's the one on the hole near the center of the handle. It's perfect for AWG #30.
@AndreasSpiess3 жыл бұрын
You are right. But I did not like it...
@TheM4rten5 жыл бұрын
A really nice addition to that fast wiring method is also those "self-adhesive elastic bandage" or in german "schnellpflaster" (google). They are perfect for wraping around PCB's to secure loose wires and also wraping several PCB's together. They also can be reused and you can use them for allmost everything ( dipping it into 2 component glues and wrap it around something, to wrap around handles etc.) i absolutley love them and it is a great enrichment for a makers lab :-)
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Good tips. Thank you!
@googacct5 жыл бұрын
Nice video. I still have my wire wrapping tool I bought from Radio Shack when I was a teenager about 30 years ago. It still gets used today. Also do not restrict yourself to just 30 gauge wire. If the wire fits it in the tool you can wrap it. I use it quite often to make small wire harnesses. For a more permanent connection I will solder the wire and add a bit of hot melt glue for strain relief.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Thank you for the tips!
@Caddyman689 ай бұрын
The biggest factor in tool size is if it will fit between the pins of the connector. I have a 22 gauge that absolutely won't - you have to bend the pins to get it to fit. I bought 24 gauge solid wire for a few projects so i could solder directly to a D1 mini. 24 gauge wire wrap tool would probably be too big too. 30 or 28 maybe
@tazman48555 жыл бұрын
Your wire wrapping tool includes a wire stripper in the center. Just thread it through the wide side and pull it down. Also I use another bigger size tool to wrap breadboard size wires. Much easier than soldering. Surprisingly reliable as well.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I did not like the built-in wire stripper
@Amir-kz6yq5 жыл бұрын
I used this wiring method during a project at my university and I must say that it is a reliable way to connect components but we had a wiring gun to rolling wires and used the other tool to remove the wires.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
We used different tools back then. But many of them are no more produced or very expensive
@mrrodgersphysics5 жыл бұрын
That was interesting, and maybe even useful. I'll admit, I had forgotten about wire wrapping myself!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are not the only if I read the comments!
@gwesco5 жыл бұрын
The first electronic telephone switch that I worked on, an ITT-TE-400G, was totally built using wire wrap. You even "programmed" hunt groups by wire wrapping various pins together. I have also built dozens of IC based projects using wire wrap. I think I wore out at least two of the hobby type battery powered tools. I still have the manual tools and occasionally use them on Arduino projects similar to what he shows in the video.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Today configuration is easier. Just click a few buttons on the screen and store the new configuration on the device ;-)
@ytfp5 жыл бұрын
excellent. I love that in more and more industries, going back to old technology and even old ways (growing your own e coli free lettuce, preserving food, wire wrapping etc.) are in many cases low tech but superior.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I am still happy we have the new technology ;-)
@CrazyCoupleDIY5 жыл бұрын
I still use this in my projects, they are Highly reliable
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
:-)
@vlividTV5 жыл бұрын
Andreas I want to thank you for sharing your research and knowledge!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@rogerbarton4972 жыл бұрын
There was a system that use self-fluxing enamelled copper wire. You had a small spool of the stuff on the end of a hollow wiring pen, the wire went down the centre of the "pen" and came out at the "nib", you soldered the wire at the starting point and moved from point to point, soldering as you went along.
@AndreasSpiess2 жыл бұрын
I used this too. But it was more complicated…
@rogerbarton4972 жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess Yea, I didn't really get on with it, I still have a virtually full reel of wire which is about 40 years old. You had to use more heat than with tinned copper wire and the residue was dirty.
@GeeWillikersMan5 жыл бұрын
Still my preferred method. Reliable, correctable, beautiful. There is a special tool for stripping the wire btw.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
In tomorrows video you will see that it works also with quite high currents ;-)
@CYMotorsport2 жыл бұрын
1:32 if you order vintage aviation parts that are decommissioned, you’ll see atleast some of these components use this method. I’m holding a piece of a retired control panel now that’s got 30 analog inputs using wire wrap
@AndreasSpiess2 жыл бұрын
It is interesting where this technology was used. It looks like unreliable but obviously was very reliable...
@dicktonyboy5 жыл бұрын
Ah happy days with my automatic wire wrap gun. It cut, stripped and wrapped all in a single, rapid move. As you say the joints were as good as solder as they were 'gas tight' around the corners of the pins.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
We also had to do much more wraps per hour. So automation was needed...
@Festoolification5 жыл бұрын
Wire wrapped TMS32010 DSP board design for degree, worked extremely well, great tech for the time and still viable for one offs/development.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Or at least to replace some Dupont wires if your device works and you want to deploy it...
@marsa745 жыл бұрын
Excellent, thanks very much. Whenever I search for some learning stuff I‘m running over your videos. So I guess it‘s time for a subscription.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Welcome aboard the channel. Just heard the beep of your subscription ;-)
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
( see newest video)
@ravishanker90145 жыл бұрын
Nice Tutorial... Something new for me... Hats off to my KZbin guru...God Bless You...Namaste from India.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Namaste. So you are probably younger than other viewers which commented here;-)
@ravishanker90145 жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess may be....
@chuxxsss5 жыл бұрын
We had to do wire wrapping at Electronic school. I was wondering what that tool was in my tool box. Thanks Andreas. Have a great day.
@morantaylor5 жыл бұрын
I did also back in the 90's and still have the tool :) Wire wrap wire can also be used as bodge wire to repair broken tracks.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I have many viewers with similar experiences. Probably all older than 30 ;-)
@chuxxsss5 жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess Remember the circuitboard stand with lead for the base mate. I said you needed gold. Well found some more Andreas.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I wonder when you will retire, lucky guy ;-)
@tonysouthern30175 жыл бұрын
I made my first z80 based home computer on wire wrap boards. Used a cut-strip-wrap tool I think, or at least I used soft insulation wire, as I didn’t need cutters or strippers.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
A few other viewers also described this technology. I newer used it.
@zephsmith34995 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the memories. My first micro was a wire wrapped 6502... which was a bit of a pain, as the 6502 was just the processor, no memory or peripherals or even clock like the modern microcontrollers. But (eventually) it worked!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Long time ago :-)
@srfrg97075 жыл бұрын
Thanks for you video. I though those tools where not available for years anymore. I am going to order on right now.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@dirk-janfaber5 жыл бұрын
Somehow your video's keep costing me money. But as it is well spend, it is no problem. Thank you for the video!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome! My videos also cost me money ;-) But I rather spend it on these little gadgets than for things like cigarettes or extensive alcohol...
@pileofstuff5 жыл бұрын
Wire wrapping is still used in the telecommunications industry for cross-connecting T1 DSX (patch panels). These use 22AWG 5 conductor wire and a similar tool (clearly slightly larger to acommodate the larger wire) Though it is rapidly disappearing as discrete T1 circuits are seldom installed any more.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I think software configuration is faster and can be done remotely which is a big advantage these days...
@pileofstuff5 жыл бұрын
@@AndreasSpiess Absolutely. Plus these days a T1 (and the to the E1 in your part of the world) is considered a very low speed circuit. And is becoming obsolete as telephone system transmission moves away from TDM to more flexible packet based .
@lmamakos5 жыл бұрын
I had ARPANET IMP #17 at our site at the U of MD back in the day in one of my computer rooms, and I operated the first ARPANET/NSFNET interconnects with it. (On a MicroVAX-II, sorry no wire-wrap in that beast.) Though I think I recall doing some wire-wraps on a UNIBUS backplane when we didn't have any bus-grant cards available.. And on a bunch of boards, you selected options/addresses/etc using wire-wrap jumpers between pins rather than those expensive DIP switches that took up a lot more room, too.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
VAX was more my time at DEC. I wrote my Ph.D. work on my VAXstation in WYSIWYG. The employees sometimes were able to buy one for cheap :-)
@barrymayson24925 жыл бұрын
Was in telecoms in the 70s most connections were wire wrapped. The electric wire wrappers also stripped the wires. The actual wire when wrapped well form as a cold weld to the corners of the pins and if you find an old wrapped board and unwind the wire when it gets to a corner you can sometimes here a faint ping and feel more resistance at that point.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
I read that the telecom industry was the first to use it.
@xyloidify5 жыл бұрын
Well done! Really well explained and superb video skills, thank you from Canada!
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your nice words!
@leeiberry5 жыл бұрын
just got my order ... works great ..
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Glad to read that.
@brainfornothing5 жыл бұрын
I didn't know this technique. Thanks for sharing !
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
You are welcome!
@spikeydapikey14835 жыл бұрын
Such a simple and clean system! Cheers.
@AndreasSpiess5 жыл бұрын
Yes, really simple.
@richardgrier47215 жыл бұрын
I still have my wire wrap tools, both manual and battery powered and some wire wrap IC sockets. I occasionally use them, though Dupont cables are my "go to" for quick Arduino projects, simply because of the female headers on the boards. If I want a "permanent" prototype and it is digital, I will consider wire wrap. However, analog circuits can develop unexpected issues when wire wrap is used, so I avoid it for analog circuits. Resistors are a pain and decoupling capacitors should be soldered in place, even in wrapped designs.
@Brausepaul1235 жыл бұрын
Can you tell me if the connection gets worse if the contacts (pins) are used multiple times? In my training at the power station, we dismantled a switchgear and it was possible to change the pins there.
@richardgrier47215 жыл бұрын
If the pins (posts) were designed for wire wrap, they are fairly hard (tougher than conventional pins), with square posts, and may be used/reused multiple times. Of course, eventually they may show some wear. If the "switch gear" is the sort used for old telephone systems, then it is designed for lots of reuse. If it is something else, then "maybe?"