We've got a vintage WIRE WRAPPING tool and it is AMAZING!

We have acquired a late Soviet NP-48 wire wrapping tool, which significantly accelerates the process of making electronic connections. Instruments like this were commonly used in the assembly of large mainframe computers during the 1970s and 1980s. Therefore, we intend to employ it for our unique retro-computing project - the restoration of one of the last existing ES 1060 mainframe control panels.
Join us on Patreon: / thechernobylfamily
Support our work with a donation: buymeacoffee.com/chernobylfamily
Get a Chernobyl poster from us: / 91648436

[@timtim8468]

Wire wrap connections are actually actually air tight, no corrosion even after decades. The material is crunched so hard, when it's wrapped around the edges of the square posts. Soldering was mostly done for safety, mains wires and such.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Exactly. In my case, I deal with many round posts, so wire warp acts more as a positioning technique.

[@fubarsnafu4994]

Everyone from NASA to Ma’Bell used them. Includes the military.

[@przemekkobel4874]

Actually, the connection improves over time, (at least in case of gold plated pins and silver coated wires) as atoms slowly diffuse between pin and wire. I saw how they use it to build a mainframe in Polish factory (Elwro) back in 80s, and they had it plugged to some sort of circuit tester that prevented wiring wrong pair of pins (if you tried that, the gun stopped).

[@mateuszorlinski7334]

​@@przemekkobel4874I guess it worked by checking current flow between the pin and the gun, As shown here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pIW9k3x5g9iEkK8si=U0KGUZB8HlSU06rB&t=335 Translation: "In this hall conncetions are made. The coplicated process is is guided by perforated tape, on which the whole asembly programme, which we call 'assembly on platters' is stored. Emploee makes the connections at the coordinates indicated by the lamps, with the wires, also indicated by the lamps. Any mistake made by the emploee, causes instant lockage of the wire wrapping gun"

[@42pyroboy]

mechanical connections are never electrical connections

[@ghlscitel6714]

We still did this back in the seventies last century. And yes, 1 or 1+1/2 turns of insulated wires was a standard wrap for secure and valid connections. I still have a battery-powered wrap pistol in my drawer but used it perhaps once in the last 20 years.

[@markanderson8066]

Still have mine too, lol

[@flamencoprof]

Back in the Eighties, I was a telecommunications tech here in NZ. We had a lot of NEC crossbar exchanges which used wire wrapping, and it was also used on a lot of cabling interconnections. I did some work applying modifications to the crossbar, which required some skill in interpreting documentation and tracing & removing some conns & adding new conns. A bit repetitive once you have done the same mod a few times. Cable termination, however, was mind-numbingly boring and often given to trainees or even temp workers. I still have a set of hand wrapping and unwrapping tools, but not one of the guns, which were self-stripping and great tools.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@theantipope4354]

Here in Australia, I did some telco work at the end of the 90s, & many smaller sites still used wire-wrap in their MDFs.

[@flamencoprof]

@@theantipope4354 Not for the jumpers, I hope? Wire-wrap is good for cabling, but the repeated wrap-unwrap cycles of jumpering lead to damage by the tools to the corners of the pins, and thus unreliable conn's. Here in NZ for jumpering we used solder on MDFs, and punch conn's in the cabinets.

[@meltysquirrel2919]

Now you need holsters to go with your pistols! 😅 Seems like wire wrap was typical world-wide so yet another thing we can all share! ☺ The mini computers we had at work in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s used wire wrap for their backplanes. I remember a tech modifying things so we could have 2 computer chassis use the same peripheral rack - it could be switched between the computers in case of a failure as it was an important system. It was always amazing to me that so much had to be done correctly by hand to make it all work! 🤓

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@SkyhawkSteve]

I still wire-wrap a small project now and then. Used to use the Gardner-Denver WW guns at work back in the 80's. We built some very large WW boards for our flight simulators, and these did use the automated WW machines that were programmed with punch tape. It worked pretty well, but now and then would stretch the wire too much and cause the wire to break within the insulation. Troubleshooting a board with thousands of wires was not fun! I still have my manual wrap and unwrap tools, as well as the No-Nix stripper for the 30 AWG wire. Very handy stuff.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing this!

[@kgraydakota]

I worked at dataCon from 1975-2000. dataCon was the largest wire wrap contractor in the world. We modified our Gardner Denver automatic wire wrap machines so that they would perform a continuity test with every wire the machine would put on the back plane.

[@Stealth86651]

Still blows my mind how random people get together and make channels so perfect and appealing to me. Thanks so much for the documentation, work and editing you guys do, it's really appreciated.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank YOU for coming!

[@Damien.D]

Wire wrapping is a long gone art, sadly. This technique was so beautiful. Can't wait to see your restoration job with that, knowing your sense of detail and historical accuracy, it will be a masterpiece.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you so much!

[@rongarza9488]

I still use it in my hobby projects. I wish there were a way to wrap from top down. With the way shown, the wire doubles back on the coil.

[@MSM5500]

_"Wire wrapping is a long gone art"_ That's wrong assumption. The reality is entirely different to what you say.

[@theantipope4354]

WW was great in lots of ways, but damn it took up so much space with those long posts!

[@Underestimated37]

This is really cool! I watched a video a few weeks back on NASAs wire wrap techniques for spacecraft, it can be extremely exacting, which isn’t surprising considering the application. They used pliers, so a tool like this makes a ton more sense

[@ChernobylFamily]

Need to check that!

[@trevorbryant4360]

Core Rope memory. I believe most of them were made by hand. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmKVo2t6gK2ml80

[@Katchi_]

Cite the video... because even back then nobody used pliers.

[@Underestimated37]

@@Katchi_ Soldering Tutorial #3 TTC Avionics Michael Hobson can’t link because links get deleted. From what I understand it’s about contamination.

[@ncot_tech]

I was about to ask who would accidentally find 4km of twisted pair wire in their shed. But after a bit of thinking, that actually sounds perfectly reasonable. Always wondered how the people building mainframes knew where to run the wires.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Each of those two rolls of wire is actually 2800m, so there are 5.6 km in fact, just as the wire is super thin, it takes very little place. I bought that long time ago for something and forgot, now it is just perfect for the project. As for mainframe builders, there normally were made special cabling/wiring schemes, and then everything was assembled either manually or semi-authomatic based on them.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for sharing!

[@SobieRobie]

Behind the Iron curtain people were collecting everything what was accidently available as everything was hard to buy. Such wire you could exchange for a carburator for Lada or other Wartburg ;)

[@uiopuiop3472]

@@SobieRobieayeahh lada vs trabant fight go!!

[@dieseldragon6756]

Just to be clear, though...4km of wire is probably what you'd need to build a functional version of the _Elektronika_ desktop scientific calculators in a wire-wrap form. I'm guessing an ES1060 must've had a _little_ bit more¹ than that in it... 😉 (¹ - Try the equivalent of Moscow to Vladivostok, though that's a _very_ conservative estimate... 🙃)

[@ronliebermann]

There’s a really cool machine related to this video. It’s called a “Wave Soldering Table”. It’s a ten gallon aquarium full of molten soldier. You put a circuit board on top, and when you press a button, the machine sets-up little ocean waves that barely touch the bottom side of the circuit board. The soldier completes dozens of connections almost instantly. Every circuit board factory used to have these. The same machine could be used for printing t-shirts if there was a stencil. Everybody wants a metal t-shirt.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Back in the 70-s, my father worked with a similar machine at one of electronics factories here in Kyiv. Told it was impressive :)

[@maudiojunky]

@@ChernobylFamilyThey still use these for PCBs, just much less extensively because most components are now surface-mounted. The pick and place machines for SMD are awe-inspiring though!

[@fubarsnafu4994]

Never thought I’d see one of these again. No need to strip wire. If the tool is working properly it skins the wire to the proper length every time. Thanks for the video

[@ChernobylFamily]

This very tool, unfortunately, does not strip wire - it is even written in the manual.

[@theantipope4354]

I remember an ad in the trade press in, I think, the early 80s for a WW gun called a "Slit'n'Wrap", which had a tiny blade to cut a slit in the insulation as you used it, & had the huge advantage that you could daisy-chain a bunch of ww posts (eg a data or address buss) with just a single wrap per post, which would've been a huge time-saver, & much more compact. Sadly, I never got a chance to use one myself; all I had was a little C&K hand tool & pre-cut wires.

[@cedric3973]

I love that you "accidentally" found 4km of wire. Sounds like what I would "accidentally" find in my garage. Great showing how these were made in soviet factories.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for watching!

[@serge933]

Its amazing that this is still used today, on old equipment. Our older flight simulators at United still have backplane and I mean a lot of it! We have to do repairs, mods sometimes that require this work.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Cool!

[@IllIIllIllIIllIlIIllIIllIIllI]

Wirewrap is still alive xD At least certainly in telecommunications. I worked as a technician for several years and was in charge of wiringwrap on the main switches in the exchanges and cable cabinets, where as recently as 15 years ago when I got laid off there were wirewrap switches remembering the 1970s and Pentaconta exchanges. From time to time I meet with former co-workers and I hear that PBXs were replaced with newer and newer ones, but the cable part remained unchanged and no one is still planning to change it for newer e.g. Krone LSA. Also this technology continues to be used and many people have internet and telephone at home thanks to it ;)

[@olafzijnbuis]

About 40 years ago I used a similar machine for wire-wrapping. That one could also strip the insulation from the wire. You inserted the insulated wire in the tool and it stripped part of it. Beware: you need to use the correct type of wire and posts. When done with the correct force the properties of the connection are outstanding. Your tool turns a bit slow I feel. Go get a higher-rated transformer.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Exactly! With thinner pins it creates pretty crude connection. Yes, I need a better PSU, that's true.

[@Underestimated37]

I’d wonder how it would work with a bench top power supply where you can tune the output properly.

[@ChernobylFamily]

@@Underestimated37 i guess anything what provides 36 v 300 mA will work.

[@habana7638]

@@ChernobylFamily 42 Volt, which was used as standard in telecom, I still have all the tools for WireWrap including the transformer and soldering iron (Selectra 42V), at the last job I had they couldn't find people with the tools and experience with WireWrap, that was Nice, I earned a lot for Monny with it, started my career in 73" as a young boy..

[@user-qv9oo2co7t]

It was called "Slit and Wrap" I used it a lot.

[@maker-matt]

Wire wrap. I was just explaining this to a coworker. Thanks for bringing back the memories.

[@ChernobylFamily]

i am very happy to help!

[@TheRailroad99]

At work we still use these for ATE Test adapters very frequently. It's a great way to quickly make super solid, and partially reversible connections( you can reuse a wire wrap post a few times - not too often however). Just the right technique for expensive test devices which are highly individual (often just one or two machines / adapters of the same type) - also sometimes we have to add test probes when the DUT (device under Test) gets altered (new pcb revisions). This is rather quickly done with a wire wrap pistol

[@ChernobylFamily]

Very true

[@BrettDalton]

We were taught wire wrap connections when I was at uni in the mid 90s, still have the hand too and some pins in my tool kit. Square pins were used because they cut into the conductor and hold it unlike round

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@23lkjdfjsdlfj]

Nice! Brings me back. I didn't really appreciate it at the time, but now I miss the simplicity and speed of wire wrapping. Waiting for board manufacturing and assembly nearly kills my enthusiasm nowadays.

[@ChernobylFamily]

So true. And I am glad to bring good memories.

[@mickleblade]

I remember doing wire wrapping in the early 90s,brings back memories..

[@ChernobylFamily]

That is great to hear...!

[@bob5074]

I have a manual version of this tool. These connections are sometimes used in old fire alarm equipment. I bought the tool at Radio Shack back in the ‘80s.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@theantipope4354]

Wow, this is bringing back some memories! I used wire-wrap for prototyping boards in my first electronics design job. According to the experts, if you do it correctly, wire-wrap on square posts are actually superior to soldered joints in multiple ways, mostly because the corners of the post would bite into the wire & cold-weld the connection. The wrap your gun is using, which includes 1.5 wraps of the insulated section, was known (at least in the USA) in the industry as a "modified wrap", as compared to a "standard wrap" which only used the bare wire. Modified wraps are superior to standard wraps because the insulation cushioned the connection to protect it from vibration.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Yes, we also call those in a similar way - "modified connection"

[@jozefbubez6116]

Used to use these tools back in th 1970s. You can produce quite sophisticated systems paricularly for prototyping or small production runs where etched pcb would be uneconomic.

[@mjmorrill081]

I did a lot of this back in the 80"s working on the MX missile the Trident missile, and the D 5 missle. What good times!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@Gene1954]

Hundreds of thousands of wirewrap connections are at this moment providing reactor protection and control of Westinghouse 3 and 4 loop Pressurized Water Reactor plants in the USA.

[@ChernobylFamily]

And it is great!

[@neil4306]

Wonderful video. As always

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@luminousfractal420]

Broke open some bose speakers recently, it had the crossover attached via wrapped pins like this, they were indeed tight wraps.

[@darkknight8139]

Again, you amaze us with yet another exciting tool. It must be very satisfying to just connect stuff using only a wound wire instead of complex soldering, let alone correcting errors easily. Very well done!

[@ChernobylFamily]

It really is! Thanks!

[@uiopuiop3472]

this is real good, i wanna find 4km of twisted pairs wire in my shed too

[@ChernobylFamily]

Heh, in fact pictured rolls are 2x2.8 km. As the wire is super thin, it takes very little space.

[@lasskinn474]

313 machines is more than one would think at first

[@ChernobylFamily]

True, but for a giant country not that much, especially compared to e.g. 1033 which was produced in thousands. Likely none survived due to exceptional amount of gold inside.

[@bullygram]

I still use wire wrapping raspberry pi and places where Pcb are not available for modules that are not breadboard friendly!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Cool!

[@David0lyle]

I’m very very familiar with wire wrapping. It was still in use in the 1990s for telephone connections. It uses the mechanical properties of copper wire to best advantage.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for sharing!

[@jeremiahrex]

This is interesting timing, I am building a test fixture at work and we’ll be using wire wrap for the spring loaded test pins. This is a superior connection method compared with solder cups because of the vibration resistance. I haven’t done it myself yet so it was cool to get a view from you first!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Good luck!

[@christianschneider597]

You still can get Wire Wrap Tools and Wires new and they are still used in building test fixtures for testing printed circuit boards.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Yes, I have been considering buying a modern one but it appeared it is way cheaper to get a vintage from an old stock.

[@Fridelain]

I bought the little hand tool and a roll of multicolored wire strands after trying a DIY solution of a small tube with a hole drilled on the side and ethernet wires with goid results. It comes in quite handy for things I dont want to solder, like LEDs, attaching things to computer motherboard headers that I want to stay on (looking at you, loose power button connectors). But the biggest thing has been the multicolored, thin but not too thin, single strand, tinned copper wires. My go to when I need to rework a board with corroded traces and misc gadgets or just prototypying stuff.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@defdac]

I made a morse decoder in 90s with one of these for a University lab. It was mechanical. You pumped the handle for it to wrap.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for sharing!

[@alexandermirdzveli3200]

I see the magic of buying the two of those is about to commence!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Good idea!

[@jenpsakiscousin4589]

I just did a refurb on a unit at work and had to break out the old Weller Wirewrap guns. Old mill hardware got solder flowed over the wire wrap once initial inspection was completed.

[@ChernobylFamily]

That would be cool to have for our task...

[@DavidPerez-Reostatico]

What a nice tool that my generation didn't have the opportunity to see/use. I'm totally in love with your videos and your work, and I have total admiration for that so I don't know how to tell you that you need to improve your soldering (5 to 10 mins video, learn the thing about the capilarity and flux, then continue your great journey) because the one that you show in the video will eventually fail. None of us want your project to have weak points, so those are my 2 cents. Thanks :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

And that is a very good advice! Thank you!

[@BrumAdam]

What a great tool - I didn't know much about wire wrapping before this and the end result looks fantastic!

[@ChernobylFamily]

From my experience, it facilitates work very much, even if thebtask is just placing things together for soldering... so I pretty much recommend.

[@specialservicesequipment393]

I never got into it, but wire wrapping was still somewhat popular until around 1990

[@ChernobylFamily]

Never late to try!

[@leopiipponen7693]

During my studies in the 80s, we built a simple teaching computer z80 and it used wire wrapping connections. It was a big job :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

I can imagine...)

[@Counselor77]

I have a manual wire wrapping tool that has the unwrapping tool on the opposite end, the tool is about the size of a large pen. Handy to have.

[@ChernobylFamily]

I need to get an unwrapping one too...

[@dieseldragon6756]

One of the *best* things about wire-wrap connections is that they're solid, secure, but _also_ human accessible. I'd imagine wire-wrap probably helped a *lot* when it came to prototype systems, given a poor or wrong connection could be fixed by a skilled operator in just a few seconds. Contrast that to today, where breaking a PCB trace and running a jumper wire would be the fix, _if you're lucky!_ 😁 It also reminds me of a security measure employed by US warships during the Cold War: To guard against possible capture and reverse engineering by Soviet forces, the computers on US Navy vessels employed wire-wrap on a one-sided backpane with a massive guillotine blade suspended above it. 🔪 In the event a vessel was captured, it would be the responsibility of the lead technician to bash an emergency button that would cause the blade to slide down the backpane, slicing *all* of the terminal posts clean off of it, leaving the wiring in a completely incomprehensible, tangled mess at the bottom of the cabinet. 🔀 You'd still be able to see _what_ was on the component side of the board of course...But *good luck* working out what had been connected to what! 🤣

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing, this is an interesting story! *silently, to the side* i have a feeling the same blade was in the panel we are repairing...)

[@Michel-7.7.7]

I just was about to say, that's the situation you're in now😁​@@ChernobylFamily

[@MarkMcCluney]

The assembly 'instructor' set up look fascinating too. It would be most interesting to see more of that if any video footage exists. Thanks Alex, that was fun.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Noted! More will appear in future episodes, as we are planning a few videos about design aspects of those mainframes before the documentary about the panel restoration.

[@MarkMcCluney]

@@ChernobylFamily Thanks mate, I'll look forward to seeing that.

[@markusoinonen2648]

I think wrapping is still used in some applications. Multi color wiring is actually quite easy to debug if proper documentation is available.

[@ChernobylFamily]

It is!

[@TheFanOrTheMask]

thank you for the fid, love your channel

[@ChernobylFamily]

These words really add motivation for us!

[@derekchristenson5711]

Neat! Wire-wrap construction always ends up looking like some kind of hybrid between electronics and weaving.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Pretty much!

[@aimbuster1]

we use wirewrap still today everyday in Germany. It is basic for wiring in ICT pcb test fixtures. (sometimes 5000 wires )

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@roberts1938]

This project is like resurrecting a dinosaur. I don't know if it's worth spending the time to run it. But I collect old military radios myself and I understand collectors who want to restore their exhibits to full working order.

[@ChernobylFamily]

True, it is a very complex, though as we want to make it a public exhibit, it is worth it. We already learned a lot, and that will be a good addition to actual hardware.

[@BritishBeachcomber]

As a young R&D engineer I used wire wrap for prototypes. Far quicker than soldering and more reliable. When daisy chaining connections, just remember to alternate the wires, top/bottom, or you will end up having to remove most of the chain just to move one wire.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for this hint!

[@Ingenieur_werker]

I've started my aprenticeship as a electronic worker back in 1988 in West Berlin and have learned wire wrapping too. Our tools looked similar to your's 😀

[@ChernobylFamily]

Cool!

[@gfr2023]

great video !! seams that wire wrapping fashinates people around the world even today... personally I use this technique.. I made a video time ago about this topic and people still like it. Go ahead with this amazing restoration project.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you so much!

[@AenesidemusOZ]

As an old communications tech, wire wrapping was the main method of working with circuit boards and backplanes. We had the guns, plus hand tools for the more awkward places the guns wouldn't fit. A lost art these days except for a few people who still use wire wrapping on bespoke circuits. Ah, the nostalgia!😂

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing! Check our other videos.

[@Jappmannen]

Actually this kind of technique is still used in nuclear power plants today. Or at least it did 10 years ago by Areva/Siemens.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Oh, wow!

[@ericrawson2909]

I have a mains powered wire wrap gun in my shed. Unused for decades!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Time to get it out and get some nostalgic feelings...) pretty much the same happened to me with an electric minilab we featured in one of previous episodes.

[@RobertJacobson]

Well now I want one.

[@ChernobylFamily]

It appeared there are many on sale, especially those from old stock are quite cheap. There are modern as well but they are pretty expensive.

[@mistahke]

I just bought some modern mechanical and manual wire wrapping tools (dirt cheap) and I'm gonna use them soon :>

[@ChernobylFamily]

Sounds great! Enjoy!

[@MSM5500]

*The wire wrap technology is still one of the most efficient and widely used technologies in electronics test fixtures* (bed of nails, ICT & Functional Test) by leading companies in the world such as BOSCH, Seagate, BAE SYSTEMS, ResMed, and many hundreds others which we design and manufacture test fixtures for. The wire wrap test probe receptacles are the most sold types of receptacles among the other types (wireless, solder cup, pre-wired etc).

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for sharing!

[@TheRailroad99]

I work for a small company doing just that... I design, build and program functional test / ICT machines. We still use wire-wrapping very often for wiring test adapters. It's a very solid and fast tool to connect wires to the test needles

[@MrWaalkman]

I wondered if it was powered off of 36 volts, and I also thought, "Gee, that looks like a 220 volt plug". I can only imagine how many of them were launched into a low orbit. :) My WW tool is battery operated, but I don't have the right size bits. So it's the handheld wrap tool for me. I have more than enough Kynar wire to last me a lifetime, but I rarely ever use it.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Exactly. A choice of those power plugs is something.

[@sheep1ewe]

Awesome! As i heard those does create sort of a spotweld on the square pins.

[@ChernobylFamily]

By empirical experience, holds like welded...)

[@DSAK55]

OMG! I remember using these in my first job, 1980.

[@ChernobylFamily]

:)

[@jamesocker5235]

Univac 642 bravo has all chassis boards done in wire wrap, usually each chassis was done in 1 color

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@Sir-Dexter]

good luck ..nice work

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you! Stay tuned!

[@Pindrop22]

Cool video

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you!

[@TeslaTales59]

I have a vintage electric WW tool. Uses 120 VAC. Also have all the hand held tools for manual operation. I used to WW all my projects like digital clocks of course.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Cool!

[@MxArgent]

It's surprising I haven't messed with wire wrap/breadboards yet. Got a simple wire wrap tool, but I haven't really used it for anything but jumpering some S-100 boards i've been building.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for sharing!

[@richardhiskett5422]

I still wirewrap some every day on the cross-connect frames here at the phone company. Yes we do also have newer punch-down frames in many locations but why replace something that isn't broken just to gain a couple of seconds per connection. luckily almost all the solder connection blocks are gone.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thanks for sharing!

[@Jhihmoac]

...I remember when our school district moved its central office into a new section of the high school back in the mid 70s, they built a new computer mainframe room as well instead of moving the old one in... While they were putting it in, I saw a somewhat different version of these things being used on the busboards and wiring arrays amongst and between the different computer components and peripherals... That would've been a lot of wires to solder otherwise... Nowadays, everything is mostly miniturized, self-contained, and if it HAS to connect with something external, it's completely wireless, via USB, or just a simple "lego-snap" and it's done!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@andrewprettyquick2070]

Have seen one before, but a manual one. My great uncle invented the Boyce cotton knotter. This is right down my street.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you for sharing!

[@godofcows4649]

I want one of these but damn, even the manual ones are expensive. Wire-wrap is SO much better than breadboard or solder prototypes.

[@ChernobylFamily]

And doing that is pretty enjoyable...)

[@chicoroth8679]

very coool!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you!

[@DolezalPetr]

this is amazing

[@ChernobylFamily]

Actually, the process is really enjoyable!

[@GothGuy885]

my parents had a console TV that went out back in the 1970's. it had a modular design, with the wire wrap connections. and the square type pins. my father gave it to me for parts. I suppose if the motor was DC and you reversed the polarity, it wouldn't work to unwind the wires quickly.? by hand isn't too bad except if you do it wrong, the nearby pins can really scratch and cut you hand up. my 15 year old self quickly found that out when I disassembled that TV for parts!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Given we have two cats, scratches is not what we really pay attention to anymore :)))))

[@ArtemKashkanov]

Soldering wire-wrapped connections impairs reliability! And the tool is cool, unfortunately it doesn’t fit 2.54 pitch. I have the same one, but I wirewrapped my relay computer with a hand tool

[@ChernobylFamily]

I believe you, though unfortunately do not see other option with round pins. Yes, it seemingly is for 5 mm only, I've managed to wrap СНП34-135 with it, though that was somewhat a painful experience.

[@MrNoobed]

Jonard in the US still makes wire wrap tools new for the phone company. If you want to make it a little faster they have a cordless version and it has a wrap/unwrap bit built into it.

[@MrNoobed]

The ones I've seen don't have that insulation wrapping feature though. You might be able to twist the gun by hand. It's notably faster than the one you got. It seems like 2 seconds for your wraps and jonard is like .5

[@ChernobylFamily]

I guess my one will work way faster if I find a PSU as required. This one is terribly underrated by amps.

[@MrNoobed]

@ChernobylFamily I've never had a wrap of insulation be specified in my jobs but I think another way to tackle it is to stick insulation up the wire wrap barrel

[@scowell]

Curious Vlad! Subbed... let's go!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Well, I am not Vlad...))

[@scowell]

@@ChernobylFamily Ah, but you must know of Curious Marc!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Sure

[@Wargene]

Not too far ago I used similar tools. They are still present in industrial applications, makes a very nice connection. Too bad the work gets quite numbingly boring after the first few ten connections. Oh the agony when you need to make a thousand!

[@ChernobylFamily]

So... seemingly now I am passing exactlynthis sort of agony..)

[@SirDeanosity]

Never use a heat gun on or close to a wire wrapped board. I did to heat shrink some soldered connections not realizing the wire wrap insulation is easily melted. Redid the whole, but small board.

[@ChernobylFamily]

This is a good advice.

[@guesslink]

В 2001 году работал в НИИ, в сборочном цехе сотрудники на пины разъемов СНО-96 таким образом накручивали провода. В том же НИИ нашел болгарский аппарат для записи данных на аудиокассеты, там была везде пайка, аппарат 1985 года. Аппарат работал.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Болгарський..? Точно на аудіокасети чи на касети ЕОМ? Бо знаю СМ5211 для аудіокасет, але то прилад одеської розробки та виробництва.

[@guesslink]

yeah, Bulgarian assembled device

[@andrewprettyquick2070]

woolworths catering wire. thats a lot of wire!

[@ChernobylFamily]

In fact, as it is thin, it takes very little space

[@Berezkin_Sergey]

Молодец! Спасибо за видео.

[@ChernobylFamily]

радий, що сподобалося!

[@theelmonk]

When I used to use one of these (OK, a US version) it was excellent. But it did chew through cut-strip-wrap bits, and they're expensive. Do you have a cache of replacements ?

[@ChernobylFamily]

For now I have just a few

[@andrepohle7485]

Sehr interessant 😊

[@ChernobylFamily]

Vielen dank!

[@andrepohle7485]

@@ChernobylFamily jetzt habe ich eine Ukrainische Familie als Nachbarn. Irgend etwas zu beachten? ;)

[@ChernobylFamily]

:))))

[@andrepohle7485]

Ich habe solche Kabelverbindungen schon gesehen. Aber ich habe mich nie gefragt wie sie gemacht wurde. So verbunden und gelötet ist sie sehr robust und sollte ein Geräte leben halten.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Ja. Mein Problem ist, dass dieses Werkzeug für Steckverbinder mit größerem Abstand ausgelegt ist, daher erfordert die Arbeit an den Steckverbindern in diesem Panel einige Anstrengung - sie haben einen kleineren Abstand.

[@pascalcoole2725]

OMG... I have done that....getting old.... One thing... with modern clockspeeds, it's nog gona work anymore.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Well, there are numerous applications for this method still - many commenters pointed at examples, check them out.

[@vinatron8075]

If you have some OS backups I could probably get it running in an emulator or on my newer mainframe system units and it would be interesting to take the emulator and plug the UI into the real panel

[@ChernobylFamily]

I have, as well as many pieces of software, all that perfectly runs in Hercules vm/360 emulator. Too bad this very panel is not a CPU panel, but universal channel multiplexer one, which operated by hell of microprograms which are gone. And in this very machine model it did not interact very much with the OS itself, (that was the idea - of making a separate channel processor). From that little bits of documentation we could get, we guess it will be possible to make a hardware imitation of some operations, say, address entry or switching channel offline/online, or indicating registers, butnto wire it to emulator for now looks like a very hard task, mostly limited by the lack of information.

[@vinatron8075]

@@ChernobylFamily ah so it was a Bus/Tag multiplexer?

[@vinatron8075]

If you know the IBM equivalent I may be able to get more information here to try and recreate the device.

[@ChernobylFamily]

@vinatron8075 sort of. The CPU panel looked similar, but had way more lights and less buttons.

[@vinatron8075]

@@ChernobylFamily well if you need any IBM docs that you think may help let me know I have connection I may be able to find stuff

[@SobieRobie]

I can't find such tool in Amazon ;)

[@ChernobylFamily]

If you need, I can get you one in Ukraine.

[@SobieRobie]

@@ChernobylFamily Noted. I will let you know when in need :)

[@RogierYou]

Some Chinese manufacturer please copy this and make it fit in the chuck of a cordless drill 😊

[@ChernobylFamily]

I guess it is easier to find an original device :)

[@mido-gq3xe]

Дуже крута штука!

[@ChernobylFamily]

Так! На ОЛХе можна купити за копійки:)

[@mido-gq3xe]

@@ChernobylFamily а це вже цікаво....

[@martinkuliza]

0:33 as one who understands how computers are built from transistors and up and as one who understand cyrillic but doesn't understand russian and can probably understand 80% of what is written there THAT CONTROL PANEL IS REALLY FUCKING INTERESTING i Guess you have like Shift Registers at the bottom there then in the middle you have some diagnostic functions, the green button is probably a SYSTEM on button and then you have some Automation options there. Pretty cool stuff

[@ChernobylFamily]

Thank you! Partly you are correct. Most of designations are acronyms, there are almost no normal words on controls and indicators. Those buttons in the bottom are grouped for byte-multiplexer channel and block-multiplexer channel and generally are - exactly - to perform diagnostics, run a microprogram or make an intrusion into machine's operation, those groups are similar, but there are differences. Two green things are light indicators, not button, and they are triggered by a toggle switch from inside the panel. They are one of the elements so far exact purpose is unclear. In meanwhile, I could find a little piece of wiring documentation on ES-2060 processor of this machine which had a very similar panel, just with way greater number of lamps and less buttons, so it helped to understand a few crucial things which are common for both control panels. For example, that I'll need a quite exotic PSU which gives 0, 5, -5.2 and -2V (exactly with this polarity and voltage).

[@martinkuliza]

@@ChernobylFamily Thank you, i tried (serbian Background, both latin and Cyrillic), i could read most of the words and put it together, other acronyms i figured out, i think i saw Pi on there the others i sort of put together based on my electronics knowledge (i'm 50), but i didn't bother mentioning. " Two green things are light indicators, not button," ??? you mean SISTEMA, that looks like 1 green thing as for the rest, that's very interesting and very cool. QUESTIONS, what is BxBOR KANALA ? (x Means i'm not familiar with that letter),, is that a channel selector or bandwidth selector there are 4 buttons SBROS then N88 then N88B then I88 also the REGISTRIA what does the word after it mean ZANESENIA I understand this area to have something to do with (Probably) a Shift Register but i don't understand that other word its a cool machine, I'd love to pull it apart LOL Budi mi ziv is zdrav, which ithink to you is.. Будь жив и здоров

[@ChernobylFamily]

There are two system indicators, one per button group. Just in the video not visible. ВЫБОР КАНАЛА is a "channel select" as there are multiple channels. РЕГИСТР ЗАНЕСЕНИЯ is to select the register where a data/operation input is being made. All in all, we are bit by bit looking for the information and many things are now clear. You can find a lot on our Patreon - there we disassemble it a segment by segment and fix it. Right now the question is proper cabling :)

[@lohikarhu734]

Nah, 70's style! I did a lot of prototypes with wire wrap...and, they kept working for a long time!

[@ChernobylFamily]

The process is really enjoyable, to my mind...

[@timofeygonchar6375]

Дякую за огляд! Якщо я правильно зрозумів, в середині є діодний міст, то його можна живити від постійного струму.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Саме так!

[@astro8807]

Hmm beautiful lol

[@ChernobylFamily]

Yesss

[@krisraps]

I Think I Have Similar Devices You Mentuoned In My Shack From Soviet Union Times.

[@ChernobylFamily]

Cool!

[@krisraps]

@@ChernobylFamily Chernobyl Family? Im DActually Disabled Because Of Chdrnobyl Accident.

[@ChernobylFamily]

This is really sad... frankly, we also have health issues because of this and God knows how much took our work at actual site - 14 years there is not a joke...

[@larry999y]

Я такой фигней занимался последние пятнадцать лет на работе .и пистолет в руках держал и советский ,и чешский ,и итальянский(кстати,самый удобный ). 😂

[@ChernobylFamily]

Cool!

[@leandromountain6829]

Interessante

[@IrenESorius]

👍😎‍‍👍‍‍

[@ChernobylFamily]

:)

[@IrenESorius]

@@ChernobylFamily 💖💖

[@ChernobylFamily]

😻😻😻

[@IrenESorius]

@@ChernobylFamily 🇸🇪💞🇺🇦

[@Uf1r]

Це точно мазахізм :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

Нє..) от паяти роз'єми по 135 виводів вручну ото точно:)

[@Xsiondu]

Hey did i wake up in a different timeline? I swear i was subscribed to your channel but Chernobyl was spelled like that.

[@ChernobylFamily]

...?

[@Xsiondu]

@@ChernobylFamily My God!!! Oh dude I can't go to sleep I have an awesome chick in this timeline. Damnit.

[@user-kz2wp9gs1i]

Лайкос ! :)

[@ChernobylFamily]

Дякую!