Panel wiring spreadsheet.

[Erie Fred]

My go to for harness wiring is a sheet of ply with nails in it

Bob

You would be surprised how many companies use just this ^^^.....
However, many are back wired underneath to a computer box that test's
the harness as it's being put together.

 

[Robotstar5]

For simple stuff just use excel?

It’s free (online version is, but offline version can be got cheap enough), customisable, future proof and if it’s only you using it there’s no need for multiple users to access it etc. I use it for doing retrofits to panels where I need to know the old terminal designations and the new ones, stuff like that. It doesn’t replace schematics in my job, but it’s an aid to quickly show where the wires are going.

You could knock something up in about 10 mins in excel - if you need the same thing over and over again then save it as a template, if not then just make a different one for each job (or create multiple templates). You’d spend more time customising something else, I think…

Here’s a panel I replaced last year, think there was about 50-60 analogue signals, and around the same digitals - all moved from 5 door mounted controllers to a new panel mounted controller. Used excel to identify existing wires, where they went to originally and where they are going to in the new one. I also added in descriptions, ranges, alarms levels and any other info needed.

For new projects this is usually the first step in defining what’s required, but quite often doesn’t go to the detail of wire numbers and terminations (though they can occasionally do).

I don’t know why but people seem quite dismissive of excel, but for fairly simple stuff like this it’s as good as anything, mainly because of its availability and ease of use. For specific tasks there may be “better” applications, but they usually are tied to specific tasks, require a subscription or extra training, or all 3.


View attachment 533127

I too used xcel a lot, the one I posted earlier was for wiring a 108 pin Harting plug onto a welding fixture, it had 3 off 49 core cables coming in so identifying every core was critical. I know 3 x 49 is more than 108 but some pins had 2 or 3 cores connected for current capacity.

 

[Cato]

Excel is fine for the purpose, I'll use Google Sheets which is there version in the same way as Google Docs is their version of Word. No licence required, all cloud based accessed from home or work.

 

[daleyd]

Excel is fine for the purpose, I'll use Google Sheets which is there version in the same way as Google Docs is their version of Word. No licence required, all cloud based accessed from home or work.

I’d just stick some headings in and go from there, you can make it look pretty and add to it as you go.

You want one that relevant to you and the work you are doing I guess, so there would be no point me (or anyone else, unless it’s doing very similar work) giving you my template as it would have different info on i to what you need. I’ll stick a copy up if you want to have a look but rather than repurposing an existing one it’s probably quicker to knock your own up.

 

[Erie Fred]

Do "You all" ever put in extra or "blank" wires ?
We used to, so that onsite repairs to broken wiring could be quickly re-routed.

These did have boot markers on both ends, and IIRC "Blank xx" to keep them straight.

Management put an end to this as a cost savings.......

 

[daleyd]

Do "You all" ever put in extra or "blank" wires ?
We used to, so that onsite repairs to broken wiring could be quickly re-routed.

These did have boot markers on both ends, and IIRC "Blank xx" to keep them straight.

Management put an end to this as a cost savings.......

In the pic above I posted the 5 door mounted controllers had all of their IO wired in to terminal blocks in the cabinet, whether it was used or not. There was probably 50% redundant wiring, must have cost a fortune when it was built 30 years ago. I suppose they had their reasons, and it was probably easier doing it during the build rather than doing it as an addon later, if you needed to add something.

Where I sited the plc was where the redundant terminal blocks sat!

 

[Cato]

Do "You all" ever put in extra or "blank" wires ?
We used to, so that onsite repairs to broken wiring could be quickly re-routed.

These did have boot markers on both ends, and IIRC "Blank xx" to keep them straight.

Management put an end to this as a cost savings.......

With the sort of thing @daleyd describes, or awkward complex routing through or round machinery, yes. For the sort of stuff I do now, no as it isn't necessary.

 

[Robotstar5]

Do "You all" ever put in extra or "blank" wires ?
We used to, so that onsite repairs to broken wiring could be quickly re-routed.

These did have boot markers on both ends, and IIRC "Blank xx" to keep them straight.

Management put an end to this as a cost savings.......

I've done it when bringing multi-core cables into panels, unused cores are tagged SP1, SP2 etc. and left inside the trunking.