Re: Any interest in new Williams wiring harnesses?

[todd1814@yahoo.com]

Most wiring harnesses are done by hand. I've worked for aviation
companies (Boeing, US Air Force) who literally have 100 people who do
nothing but make wiring harnesses.

I've made a Joust harness last year. A one-off is a little harder
than duplicating one. I put at least 10 hours into it, not including
the planning of wire colors. All finished, I probably spent close to
$80 on everything. Add in my time and it was way over $100.

Wire is very expensive. I'd have to look back at my notes but off the
top of my head there's about 800 feet of wire involved. No
exaggeration here. Try pricing out wire to see how much 800ft. will
cost you. I found a special deal on some surplus control wire and
paid $55 for it. I had to buy more black, green and red wire to
finish up. Buying control wire is about the only way you'll get
enough colors (25 in my case) to make a harness that's easy to
troubleshoot. I couldn't imagine using half that number. It was hard
enough to come up with a scheme where everything made sense. Imagine
trouble shooting a harness where red means 4 or 5 different things
(not just +5). Gauge is also important. You have to make sure the
wires that carry power have the right gauge, strand count and
insulation to handle the amps. Otherwise your wire will run hot and
eventually degrade or cause a fire. Control wires can be smaller
gauge.

According to the spreadsheet I used to plan wire colors, there are 150
different pins that have to be crimped and 20 connectors. Here's the
spreadsheet.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pPkzxIGAd5SjGpL4e0cDCLA

Besides adding some details on what goes into making this harness, I
just wanted to point out that $100 is well worth the cost. If you
make your own, I'd also recommend changing out the pin headers on the
PCB's so that everything is new. Connector pins are only rated for 25
insertions so even if you buy an old harness I'd recommend changing
out the crimp connectors.

And don't forget to make a new backdoor sheet with the new color
scheme! I had to do that also - another 10 hours invested to scan,
vectorize and re-draw. The correctly update the colors and find a
place to print it!

[Pat D.]

This is an incredibly time-consuming task to say the least. Then, if
you screw up one wire, you could potentially screw up your board set,
and then have to deal with the frustration of determining where the
problem lies.

I remember back in my days in the Air Force where we took a tour of the
maintenance shops where they were building replacement wiring harnesses
for aircraft. There were wooden mock ups with pegs and guides with
color tags to assist in the building of the harness. The spools of wire
were enormous and the process of building the harness was very
time-intensive. Just as you pointed out.

If you can find them, the most cost-effective way of getting a harness
is to buy a used one that hasn't been butchered. I made a Defender
harness from 2 Williams harnesses that had been butchered and ended up
with one correct one. I was thrilled. I still save harnesses from
cabinets in the hopes of building more. I love finding a jammatized
cabinet with the original harness sitting in place. Makes my day.

There is definitely a need for Williams harnesses as I have purchases
two of them in the past. One used and one new. The new one was not to
the original specs but they had erred on the cautious side and used a
larger size wire. The colors didn't match either so it was up to me to
figure out what went where. Fortunately, the connectors were wired
correctly and it wasn't that difficult to figure out.

Quite honestly, I think if someone were to hand-make a wiring harness
for a game, it would cost well over $100 for parts as the price of
copper has gone thru the roof and correctly colored wire will be almost
impossible to find at a decent price. Everybody wants "money for nuthin
and chicks for free" so I think you'll have a difficult time finding
anyone that wants to pay a bill for a harness that isn't exact.


Just my 2 cents

Pat D.

todd1814@yahoo.com wrote:
> Most wiring harnesses are done by hand. I've worked for aviation
> companies (Boeing, US Air Force) who literally have 100 people who do
> nothing but make wiring harnesses.
>
> I've made a Joust harness last year. A one-off is a little harder
> than duplicating one. I put at least 10 hours into it, not including
> the planning of wire colors. All finished, I probably spent close to
> $80 on everything. Add in my time and it was way over $100.
>
> Wire is very expensive. I'd have to look back at my notes but off the
> top of my head there's about 800 feet of wire involved. No
> exaggeration here. Try pricing out wire to see how much 800ft. will
> cost you. I found a special deal on some surplus control wire and
> paid $55 for it. I had to buy more black, green and red wire to
> finish up. Buying control wire is about the only way you'll get
> enough colors (25 in my case) to make a harness that's easy to
> troubleshoot. I couldn't imagine using half that number. It was hard
> enough to come up with a scheme where everything made sense. Imagine
> trouble shooting a harness where red means 4 or 5 different things
> (not just +5). Gauge is also important. You have to make sure the
> wires that carry power have the right gauge, strand count and
> insulation to handle the amps. Otherwise your wire will run hot and
> eventually degrade or cause a fire. Control wires can be smaller
> gauge.
>
> According to the spreadsheet I used to plan wire colors, there are 150
> different pins that have to be crimped and 20 connectors. Here's the
> spreadsheet.
>
> http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pPkzxIGAd5SjGpL4e0cDCLA
>
> Besides adding some details on what goes into making this harness, I
> just wanted to point out that $100 is well worth the cost. If you
> make your own, I'd also recommend changing out the pin headers on the
> PCB's so that everything is new. Connector pins are only rated for 25
> insertions so even if you buy an old harness I'd recommend changing
> out the crimp connectors.
>
> And don't forget to make a new backdoor sheet with the new color
> scheme! I had to do that also - another 10 hours invested to scan,
> vectorize and re-draw. The correctly update the colors and find a
> place to print it!
>