Bruder Delta loader conversion

[jerry56]

It's all good....it's not derailed... it all relates ...and I get what your saying about not being able to tap things like JB weld...makes sense.

[jerry56]

I finally got back to the Delta loader...I'm pretty much done with it I think although it doesn't look as neat as some I've seen.... I might have to work on some type of wire management...


I can't believe how much wire is in this thing. Do you all shorten the wires or just have a creative way of wrapping them up that looks really good.... I tried shortening some of them but then found they were to short to allow me to easily unplug the battery and such.



I took about a half inch out of the floor of the cab to give me a little more room, you can't see it when the cab is back on....
When I get it to where I can get the cab back on I'll take more pictures and may attempt a video ...

[frizzen]

I like it, but driver visibility doesn't look good.

After you figure out component layouts, it really helps to shorten up wire runs and plan where your connectors fit best.

Preferably you can resolder the wires at the pads on the board. If that's not possible splicing mid-run works ok. i like to find a straight section in the routing so splice isn't bent, lay the wires parallel inline with about 1/4" overlap, solder, heatshrink. An 'Inline' splice takes up less room than a 'Deadend' splice.

It also helps to swap to thinner wires on to the low amp draw parts. We aren't racing, or even really stressing most parts very hard. You can cram much more 22g wire than 16g into a tight area, and it's more flexible.

When pretty wire routing isn't possible or you need slack for moving or disconnecting, a spring is better than a wad. Wrap wires tightly around a pencil / paint brush or something, hopefully it takes a set as a spring.

If just it's a pair of single wires like up to a light, twist them together. Neat, organized, stronger, less likely to get caught somewhere.

[jerry56]

Ok with some suggestions from Frizzen I got the wiring under control... mostly





I even added a beacon....more wires...



I'm working on a video....but this one is finally done...ish
Time for the next project....

[egronvold]

Looking neat

[frizzen]

That's looking really sharp.

Glad those suggestions helped out a little. Do you still have some problem spots that need more specialized ideas?

If you're running lights, it really helps to make harnesses so that you can just worry about connecting and stowing a couple wires instead of 2 wires for every light.

[Tgrzes]

Looks great. Everything tucked away nicely!

[jerry56]

LOL Tgrzes things are tucked away but far from neat much better than they were though.
Thanks Egronvold I'm still getting the hang of this...
Frizzen I just have to get a mind set for stowing wire I guess, sometimes I run them and they look good but when I put 2 pieces together I find out the run is in the wrong place. There is a lot of pre-planning that goes into these. when you said "After you figure out component layouts" I had to laugh ... layout ???? you mean once I get all this shi* stuffed in...lol... this thing was tiny....But I'm getting better... you know I'll ask if I get stuck.
This was a fun build but if I were to do another one I think I would go all servo so I could skip the ESC's plus it would give me more room without the gearbox. When I started collecting parts for this a year ago there wasn't a ready source of CR servos you had to convert them and I wasn't ready to tackle that. Now there Hitec and Bilda both have CR servos so I think I would go that route.