Thingiverse
Wall Wart Cable Tidy by David_J
by Thingiverse
Last crawled date: 4 years, 7 months ago
Background
Like most people, I have dozens of plug-in power supplies (a.k.a. "wall warts") to drive all of my gadgets. Each of them comes with a long lead that gets into a knot and tangles with the wires from everything else in the drawer. I designed this thing to keep the wires tidy - simple as that.
It was originally designed for the standard UK plug pins, but I have attempted to make it suitable for EU and US plugs - I have successfully tried an EU plug, but could only design the US one 'to the specification'. It needs to be tried with a real plug!
The SCAD files
The main file is called wall_wart_cable_tidy.scad. This defines the basic reel, and positions the set of holes for the chosen plug.
The plug layout and spacings are defined in plug_layouts.scad. Each definition is called by the main file as appropriate. This file needs to be in the same directory as the other files when printing a reel, or testing a layout.
New plug layouts are tested using plug_test.scad. New plug definitions are first tested with this file, to minimise plastic waste. Once a new plug pin layout is correct it can be called from the main SCAD file and fitted to the basic spool shape.
Further development
I doubt that I will develop this design further, although I will amend the files if someone tells me that the EU or US files are wrong - please let me know in the comments. However, if you want to modify the design for other plugs then please do so, and publish a remix. I welcome all development and would like to see how people get on.
Updates
Australian 3-pin plug now added - many thanks to gaehl for his help in testing the plug layout.
Like most people, I have dozens of plug-in power supplies (a.k.a. "wall warts") to drive all of my gadgets. Each of them comes with a long lead that gets into a knot and tangles with the wires from everything else in the drawer. I designed this thing to keep the wires tidy - simple as that.
It was originally designed for the standard UK plug pins, but I have attempted to make it suitable for EU and US plugs - I have successfully tried an EU plug, but could only design the US one 'to the specification'. It needs to be tried with a real plug!
The SCAD files
The main file is called wall_wart_cable_tidy.scad. This defines the basic reel, and positions the set of holes for the chosen plug.
The plug layout and spacings are defined in plug_layouts.scad. Each definition is called by the main file as appropriate. This file needs to be in the same directory as the other files when printing a reel, or testing a layout.
New plug layouts are tested using plug_test.scad. New plug definitions are first tested with this file, to minimise plastic waste. Once a new plug pin layout is correct it can be called from the main SCAD file and fitted to the basic spool shape.
Further development
I doubt that I will develop this design further, although I will amend the files if someone tells me that the EU or US files are wrong - please let me know in the comments. However, if you want to modify the design for other plugs then please do so, and publish a remix. I welcome all development and would like to see how people get on.
Updates
Australian 3-pin plug now added - many thanks to gaehl for his help in testing the plug layout.