Summary

A well-built wiring system is only as good as the documentation behind it. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to properly document your wiring so it’s easy to troubleshoot, modify, and maintain — whether it’s your car or someone else’s.

00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to today's webinar.
00:02 I'm Caleb here at High Performance Academy.
00:04 It's great to have you here.
00:05 Today, I wanna talk to you about one of the things that I think is probably the most important when it comes to wiring, and that is documenting your harness.
00:13 Documenting, I think it's something that people often skip over a bit too quickly.
00:16 It is probably one of the more boring topics when it comes to electrical and motorsport especially, but arguably one of the most important.
00:24 Today, what I'm gonna talk about, more about what kind of things you're gonna wanna document, not, so much getting into the different types of programs and stuff out there.
00:33 I will touch on that and go into a couple in particular.
00:36 There is a good write up on the articles that Taz did.
00:41 Goes into, it's called the 10 Options for Drawing Wiring Schematics Harness in Motorsport Applications.
00:46 That goes really well into those different programs and sort of things like costs and yeah, what kind of usability they have.
00:53 So, I do recommend going and checking that out.
00:56 Get the guys to put a link in the chat hopefully, that might be good for you guys.
01:00 But moving on, documenting your harness.
01:04 Most people generally do it just to build their harness.
01:08 You know, they'll jot some things down, do a few drawings, do some pinouts, and that's as far as the documentation really goes.
01:14 They'll get straight into cutting wires, pinning connectors, making a harness, and at the end of the day, it's probably a great harness and works well.
01:21 But you know, six months down the track, six years, do you really know exactly what you did? So, you know, when it comes to documenting, it really does benefit you in the future and now.
01:33 It can be the difference between, you know, having a well-built harness that you can later on diagnose any issues.
01:40 It may not be issues with the harnesses, but issues with sensors and that type of thing.
01:44 And the difference between that and pulling your hair out, or in my case, pulling your beard out and my fellow bald brothers.
01:52 But getting off track, documenting, as I said, arguably one of the most important, and not just documenting for your build.
02:00 You want to document, on the more professional side, you're documenting for things like your construction, obviously, building the actual harness, but in the future, testing and troubleshooting, any future modifications.
02:12 It makes, you know, finding where your powers are, what sensors are where, power and grounds, that sort of thing, makes adding in components later, so much more easy.
02:20 And for, if you're going to sell the car, future owners, you can give them a nice portfolio of wiring that you've taken a lot of care in, and they themselves can, you know, see all your great work and be able to diagnose things in the future.
02:34 At the end of the day, the person who benefits the most from good documentation is you, especially if you're the one that's been wiring up the car.
02:42 So, what in particular do you actually want to document? The main thing is, when it comes down to electrical, you've obviously got circuits, lots of different circuits going to different parts of your car, doing different things.
02:53 So, really just making a list of what different types of circuits you have, what they're going to be doing, things like current draw, whether they have certain polarity, situations like LEDs.
03:05 And moving on from that, then you can start adding things like your connectors.
03:09 You'll know what connectors you want where for certain components, how many pins you can need in the connector, how many circuits are going to be in that connector.
03:19 And also having said on that, the components themselves, you need to know what components you're going to be wiring up, what sort of specifications they have.
03:26 They might specify certain wiring, especially if they've got things like CAN bus, and then also your physical routing.
03:33 I think just mounting it and routing it around your car, that needs to be documented as well.
03:38 It makes it a lot easier in future when you might have your connector and the component all documented, but then you might go, where does that actually run in the car or someone who's working on the car? So, documenting how that actually physically routes as well is critical.
03:51 When it comes to the connector information, you'll have things like your wire information, size of the wire, color of wiring if you're using different colors.
04:00 If you're not using different colors, you can also have your indent colors using the heat shrink indents.
04:06 And also things like PDMs, you document your logic from the PDM and things like ECUs, stuff like that, where certain sensors and components are wiring to.
04:18 And I did say I'll touch on the different programs and stuff, so, sort of talk about what the different methods are that you can use.
04:26 One of the main ones that it all sort of comes down to is hand-drawn, handwritten stuff.
04:31 I mean, I do it all the time.
04:32 It's sort of how I start my harness building is just notes and quick things jotted down on a piece of paper or drawing out a quick sketch of how a harness is gonna move around the car.
04:42 This is a great way just to get that build started and start working somewhere.
04:47 And it can often point out those little areas where you're like, oh, that's not gonna work there.
04:50 I need to move that there or that component's not actually gonna be able to connect to that one.
04:54 So, definitely hand drawing, hand notes, there's always a place for that as much as technology is getting to the point of, we don't even need our hands anymore, but yeah, start off with that.
05:04 That's how I start off generally.
05:05 The disadvantages are, it's hard to update those drawings and paperwork unless you're working in pencil and you can erase it.
05:12 But yes, you often end up with pages and pages of sort of draft wiring and that sort of thing.
05:18 So, I do recommend, you can start there, but then move on to using programs, spreadsheets, that sort of thing to document it for life.
05:26 So, keep it hanging around for good.
05:29 So, basic programs that you can use, we come down to things like Visio, which if we jump over to the, this video knows apps design.
05:39 This is one of those sort of free, just you can draw it yourself, draw everything yourself, which is great for, I guess, what do you call it? Customizable, customability, if that's a word.
05:52 You know what I mean? You can do everything yourself.
05:55 You're not sort of restricted to the constraints of a certain program, but that does also then make things complicated.
06:01 You've got a lot of work to do to build exactly what you want.
06:03 When there are programs like on our sort of more professional side, we have Rabbit Harness, and this does everything you're probably gonna wanna do.
06:12 Documents all your conductor types, where the conductors go to and from, connectors, notes, contact pins, like what the part number of the actual pins and the connectors, good layout diagram of where everything goes.
06:26 Problem is you're gonna pay for it.
06:27 The price on Rabbit Harness itself, I think that's, we've got a pricing thing right here.
06:33 There is a free option, but it does limit you to a few harnesses and connections, I mean, 30 connections per harness.
06:40 I definitely have a lot more connections than that for one of my harnesses.
06:43 So, that would get kind of frustrating.
06:44 But then when you start going up into a license, you are paying quite a bit.
06:48 A lot of the time, over the years, I've looked into these different types of programs and I have mates in the profession that even, they're doing looms over and over again.
06:58 We often just come back to Excel spreadsheets.
07:02 And I think that's, it's in itself, you might use one of these programs.
07:06 Spreadsheets definitely come in handy as even an interim between drawing it on paper and then coming into one of these programs.
07:12 One of the programs in particular that I will look at has a good way of bringing those spreadsheets into the actual program itself.
07:19 So, if I jump over to my other sheet here, I'll actually show you, this is a spreadsheet that I've done for our FJ40 harness, the whole chassis harness, and just completed the dash harness, which was probably one of the more complicated parts.
07:34 It's got two motorsport, MoTeC PDMs, MoTeC dash, ECU, heated seats, entertainment system, central locking, all that kind of stuff.
07:42 So, lots of things to keep track of.
07:44 So, I'll kind of run you through how I go through things, give you a bit of an idea and things, particularly what I want you to take from this is just the kinds of things you'd want to actually document.
07:55 So, as I said, starting off, I will do hand -drawn, write down sort of my components that I need, what sort of power they're going to be using, how many wires they have.
08:04 And from there, I'll start getting a bit of a list like I've got here.
08:07 This is my, it's basically a connector list.
08:09 It's just a list of every connector I'm going to have in a harness.
08:12 We can see here, I've got my, I'll give them a description and then their main connector ID.
08:18 So, another big thing with documenting is using IDs and references.
08:24 That's sort of a bit intuitive.
08:25 You know, it's not, you'll remember it, but also if someone else looked at it, they might have a pretty good idea of what it's going to be and not guessing from your connector name that is BZS3W496.
08:38 So, giving them just a generic name, like I've got my here, this is CAN bus lines, CAN1.
08:45 It's labeled CAN1.
08:47 CAN2, I've got this one labeled as CAN switch.
08:49 So, that's actually a CAN switchboard.
08:51 Ignition switch, CLMN for column.
08:55 What else we got here? IMU, so that's the sensor, keypad, heater valve.
09:00 A lot of the time it's just abbreviating what the actual component is.
09:03 And as you can see, I've got in the description here, the actual full name of the component.
09:09 Moving on from that, I always have some sort of notes just where I can write in random things.
09:13 These, this spreadsheet is obviously ongoing.
09:16 So, there's probably going to see some weird notes in places and, you know, things ticked off and not ticked off.
09:20 I like to put check marks in things.
09:24 Always, it's not generally, I'll tick it off and then that's ticked off for good.
09:27 I'll leave it there as I can, you know, tick it when I'm making sure I've got all my circuits.
09:32 I can then untick them, tick it again when I'm getting all the connectors or getting supplies.
09:36 So, it just comes in handy as a bit of a reference.
09:38 Also, one of the great things about spreadsheets is the ability to make your own functions, use the formulas that are inbuilt and do backend scripts.
09:48 So, it can get a bit more advanced.
09:50 If you know coding and that sort of thing, it's a lot easier.
09:53 Even your AI, ChatGPT can spit out some pretty basic formulas and extensions that will work quite well.
10:02 So, in this, I have a separate column, which does things like collect connectors, find different connectors, that sort of thing.
10:08 It also searches my other spreadsheets for what row that connector's on and has a quick go-to button.
10:15 But at the end of the day, you don't need this stuff.
10:17 It just makes it a bit nicer sometimes, especially if you're going to be sticking to spreadsheets.
10:21 So, when I made this, spreadsheets were my main go-to.
10:24 Since then, I have started broadening out to some of these other programs because a lot have come up since then.
10:30 But this just gives you a basic idea of the kinds of things you want.
10:34 So, once you've got your components with their connectors laid out, you know you've got a whole list of the connectors you want.
10:41 The next thing you're going to want to go to is each individual connector and its pinout.
10:45 So, my next page, I've got my interior main loom and its connectors.
10:49 This does get pretty extensive sometimes.
10:52 This loom in particular had heaps of connections.
10:53 So, you can see here, I've just got connector after connector.
10:57 That's where having my formula for searching makes it a bit easier.
11:00 But basically, you just want a few key things when it comes to the connector.
11:04 You want, obviously, an ID.
11:05 So, you can name that connector.
11:09 You can ID that from every other connector and it has its own significant ID.
11:13 So, it's different from everything else.
11:15 This one, PDM-INT.
11:17 So, this is the PDM intermittent connector.
11:20 The FJ harness, the start of it was actually built by Andre.
11:24 He did the engine and, so the interior ECU and engine side of that harness.
11:32 And I've come and started the chassis side of that harness.
11:35 So, we had to have a bit of a bridge in between.
11:37 And one of those was some PDM connections and that's what is here.
11:42 And basically, this just goes through pin ID, which would generally be numbers.
11:49 A lot of connectors are numbered rather than alphabetical, but being a motorsport connector, they often have those pin IDs as alphabetical, which one note on that, always be careful when you're going through.
12:02 You don't just do A to Z.
12:03 You often find things like I and O, letters that look like numbers.
12:08 They won't actually use them on the connectors.
12:09 So, make sure you get that right.
12:11 Next, I have my actual pin and the pin part number, just as a bit of a help when you're buying components.
12:17 Not really a necessity.
12:19 The conductor.
12:20 This is definitely one of the things that you want to document, what size it is and the color.
12:25 As you can see here, these are all red, so, it can get a bit confusing.
12:28 But if you've watched our courses, you know that even having all the same conductor colors, it's when you're building a harness from scratch, continuity checking and things like the Raychem IDs that you can put on, do make identifying separate wires pretty easy.
12:45 But this is also why documenting comes in handy as well, because someone came to this connector in the car, saw all these red wires going to the connector.
12:53 It would be a bit of a headache to know what's going to what.
12:56 But having this, they can go and see here that I've got my different functions, the indicators, work lights, brake lights, engine bay light.
13:03 Everything's labeled on what pin it is actually on, which is one of the core parts of documenting your harness is knowing what particular function or circuit is on what pin of what connector.
13:17 Also on here, I have the destination.
13:19 This is essentially the connector ID of where that wire goes to and the pin.
13:26 As you can see here, this one is CC.
13:28 That's because it's another Autosport connector that there's, so many pins in it that you run out of letters, and then they then go to lowercase letters.
13:35 And then after that, they go to double letters.
13:37 So, you have to make sure you're following along.
13:40 It's probably one of the downsides to spreadsheets is you have to really keep track of this stuff.
13:44 As soon as you go back and start changing, you have to make sure you're pretty thorough with changing in every place that you have that pin.
13:50 That's where some of the other programs come in handy because when you apply a conductor to a certain pin, it'll apply that through the whole harness and you won't have that issue of, you know, mixing things up as you update.
14:04 You'll also see here, I've got splice on these two media 12 volt.
14:08 That's because just after the connector, you can see here, actually it's not at the connector.
14:12 My notes here say splice at MDIA, which is media.
14:16 So, this is telling me that these two wires will run all the way to the media connector and then splice into it there.
14:22 They won't actually go to a pin.
14:23 So, that's always, you need to keep track of your splices as well.
14:26 Because often like this, you'll have one or two wires and then splice into multiple other wires or a single wire.
14:31 And that can be real pain in the ass to, you know, track down when you got no idea what's actually going on in the loom.
14:37 So, that gives you a bit of an idea.
14:38 I've got the layout checkers there as well.
14:40 That's just another check box and some more notes.
14:43 I do have the ident color.
14:44 I didn't use any idents for this harness, but basically you just fill these in with your different colors.
14:48 I think my wiper motor actually, I did that a while ago.
14:51 There you go.
14:51 That's the wiper motor I have back here.
14:53 I wired that up quite a while ago and put idents on there just to be sure.
14:58 So, I've got that tracked in my documents.
15:00 So, now whenever I look at that, I know exactly what's going on.
15:03 And all I do here is copy and paste.
15:05 It's just simply taking the same thing, pasting it over and again, and going through all our connectors.
15:10 That's probably another benefit of the spreadsheets.
15:12 You can just copy and paste.
15:14 I do recommend if you get into using a spreadsheet, creating, I can't even remember what the name is now.
15:23 You know, when it has, it's a template.
15:25 There's another name for it.
15:26 Anyway, creating templates.
15:27 So, save spreadsheets and things with your basic layouts, no, connector information, have it saved somewhere, even with your formulas that you might work out.
15:37 And then it just makes it, you can then copy it over to your new harness and it makes it a lot easier.
15:42 Because it does get quite complicated at the end of the day.
15:44 You've got a lot going on.
15:46 Also here on the side, I do have just a picture of some of the connectors just to give an idea of the pinout and how it actually lays out.
15:52 That comes in handy when you're doing things, concentric harnesses.
15:55 You might want to lay your first layout of the first branch from that connector in the same way that that circular connector goes.
16:02 That comes in very handy.
16:03 But yeah, when it comes to the documentation, more information is better, but also it can get a bit overwhelming.
16:10 So, I like to try and keep my spreadsheets to one particular item, connectors in this case, and then have a separate spreadsheet for something else.
16:20 So, if we carry along here, these are just separate harnesses in that car, the dash switch loom, the easy wire ones I will talk about in a minute.
16:28 That's one of the programs we'll talk about.
16:30 And the other point we have here are things like my ground points and splices.
16:35 So, I have an actual splice list, similar to the conductor list, just because there are, so many splices, it allows me to keep track of what ones are actually there.
16:43 And I have a couple of formulas here that work out the CMA of the total wires and what splice would be ideal.
16:49 Pretty simple formulas that you can make up.
16:52 You just make a sheet that has the average CMA for a certain splice, the CMA for each individual conductor.
17:02 And then I have, much similar to the connectors, it's just each splice, their own ID, so, I know what's what.
17:10 A total CMA, it's just basically adding up all the CMA of all these different wires.
17:14 And then a formula that basically just works out where it fits best and gives me a part number.
17:22 Now, I do like to double check these and make sure the formula hasn't done the wrong thing and that it is actually gonna fit, so, I don't rely on that completely.
17:29 But it is just a very handy thing to have.
17:31 With the splices, very similar thing.
17:34 Conductors, the function, destinations, but you don't need things like your pinouts because there are obviously no pins to just a one splice.
17:41 But yeah, as you can see, spreadsheets can be a very good way of keeping track of everything.
17:47 From that, these are some basic sheets that just add up different connectors that I have so, you can purchase them and not lose track of how many you actually need.
17:58 From that, because the, as I said, keeping your spreadsheets tidy and organized is one of the main things and probably one of the disadvantages is if you don't keep it organized, it does get messy.
18:10 This I have here, this is basically the folder purely for the FJ.
18:14 Because two people have started the loom, I do have a few different spreadsheets just back and forth.
18:19 But you will have things, I like to split things up if it's quite a large connector.
18:23 So, this is the bulkhead connectors because each one has quite a few different circuits.
18:28 I'll split them up just to keep it out of the way and something I can reference quite easily.
18:34 Now, these also give a bit more detail on shell size, the contacts, pins, pin count, what boot I'll need when booting the harness.
18:44 But the general idea is pretty much the same.
18:47 And I think these are sort of the key things that you need to document when it comes to your harness, particularly the connector sides.
18:54 What pin, the conductor, what's the designation, sorry, this is, I don't think I had it on the other ones.
19:00 I did actually.
19:01 Designation is basically just what that pin is assigned to on a component.
19:06 So this, a lot of these go to PDMs, which you can see here, PDM, 12-volt ignition bank two.
19:13 Sorry, that's coming from a PDM.
19:14 It just tells you the basic idea of what that is.
19:18 Some of these are a bit replicated with the function and designation.
19:22 But it does come in handy if you've got something like your PDM layout, which I do actually have here, which is a separate list, PDM setup.
19:30 So, here it goes, designation.
19:32 These are all, so you have digital inputs, down further are 8-amp outputs.
19:36 It just allows you to list them.
19:38 And when you're setting up your PDM or your ECU, you'll know that the injector bank one is off of the 8-amp output 13, which is pin BE.
19:47 And it just makes it a lot easier when you're setting up that PDM.
19:50 You're not trawling through connectors and trying to find out where your 8-amp output 13 is.
19:56 So, having all that kind of information is much more handy.
19:59 And this, I've got the IDENT colors on here as well.
20:02 So, there is, I guess you can, as I said, more information, the better, but it does come down to a bit of a personal thing.
20:08 As I said, the person who's gonna benefit the most from a good documentation is yourself.
20:12 So, think about the things that maybe something that you often forget, pinouts.
20:16 I mean, I'm definitely guilty of pinning a couple of connectors the wrong way sometimes.
20:20 And just having that documentation really helps to avoid those kinds of problems in the future.
20:26 And if a problem does arise, then it gives you a place that you can actually look things up nice and quickly and cross-reference to the actual loom and say, hey, that's not right.
20:35 I can change that and we're on our way again.
20:37 Otherwise, you're probably gonna be sitting there with a multimeter back and forth, trying to find out where connectors are going to.
20:43 So, I'll just give me a second, I'm gonna look at my notes, make sure I'm covering everything we need to.
20:50 So, I've gone over the basics of spreadsheets.
20:53 Other things that you will wanna document is things like fuse boxes, your fuses, what size fuses, if they go to relays, the component relays, things like the pinout of your relays, pin 30, pin 87, what they go to, whether they go to a fuse and just things like that.
21:12 Obviously, you wanna document every little bit that you can, but keep it organized, keep them in separate sections, keep a power distribution spreadsheet if that's what you're doing or a harness section and don't sort of bundle everything up into one go because it's much like your brain.
21:27 If you have everything piled in and unorganized, then it's just gonna get messy and not really the benefits that we are looking for from a documentation.
21:38 So, and my key line here that I've got here actually, says on that, most professional wiring documentation isn't just one document, it's a collection of documents.
21:45 So, don't think of it as just one scribbling on a page in your book.
21:48 You wanna have a nice, big collection of different parts that you can go through, but keep it organized.
21:55 So, I've touched on, yeah, there's free programs out there and the more expensive.
22:01 One in particular that's come up recently, if we jump over to my computer, harness.design.
22:05 I actually got the chance to speak to the guys who designed this and got the program out there.
22:10 Great guys here in New Zealand and really good at, they listened to what sort of issues we're having and things that we want in the program.
22:18 And I think it's a really good, it's definitely great for your starter harness building.
22:23 If you're just getting into it, it gives you a really good visual layout.
22:28 This is probably a little bit messy on my side here.
22:30 This is the FJ Loom and it goes in all different direction and is a quite complicated harness, so, it can get a bit messy.
22:36 But if we break it down a bit, I'll just show you sort of one section.
22:39 The idea is it gives you those connector layouts, much the same as our spreadsheet.
22:44 So, we can see I've got the ABS diagnostics, individual pins and their function.
22:49 And the easy thing about this is when you wanna actually connect a wire, in a spreadsheet, you have to go find that connector, make sure you type in where it goes to, what it function is, and then go back to the other connector and make sure that that is in the same place.
23:02 Whereas here you simply click and drag and it'll auto-populate and that's exactly how you want it.
23:08 It makes things nice and easy.
23:09 If you've put it in the wrong spot, delete, it's gone, move it to the next spot.
23:14 Makes it, so much easier.
23:15 And the problem we've had over the years, I mean, been a long time I've trawled through the internet trying to find programs like this and I find bits and pieces and it won't do some things you want or it will do a few things, but then you have to pay for even more.
23:29 These programs that are coming out now, Harness.Design is a great one.
23:33 There is a paid level to it, but the free version, you still can get quite a good basic harness out of it, a good visual layout, and even the paid version, it really doesn't cost that much.
23:43 It's not in the hundreds like Rabbit Harness is.
23:46 So even, I think touching on that as well, the subscription process for these types of programs, I think is probably a good idea because a lot of us, a lot of you guys watching as well, probably aren't making looms every month.
23:59 So, you can pay for it for a month, get your loom done, get all your design work done, and then you don't need it again.
24:04 You don't need to keep paying until you need to make another harness.
24:07 So, I think it's great for the more hobbyist and enthusiast side.
24:10 This delves deep as well into what parts you have.
24:14 So, we can assign parts to it.
24:16 They do have, you can do a side-by-side layout like I have here, the part section.
24:21 So, you go through, create your part, like over here, all the different connectors, and then it allows you to actually assign these to all your actual connectors in the schematic.
24:31 You will notice like the layout of this is very much an electrical schematic sort of style.
24:35 It's probably one of the things I liked about it when I saw a bit of background in things like PCB design and small circuitry.
24:42 So, I particularly like that.
24:45 Some of you might look at it and go, hey, there's too much going on.
24:47 It's not for me.
24:49 That's the trade-off when it comes to these kinds of programs.
24:51 It's not gonna benefit everyone.
24:53 Everyone's not gonna like it, but I think there's a few different ones out there now that you'll surely find something that you like.
25:00 And having said that, I probably don't, I mean, at the moment, I'm not making harnesses 24-7, just occasionally for things like the FJ project and for course material.
25:10 But when I do, I like programs like this just for a good visual layout.
25:14 This has a really good section.
25:15 If we go to layout, it actually, you can lay things out in a way that your actual harness is gonna lay out, which is really beneficial because it gives you a bit of a visual inspection where you can quickly look and go, okay, that connector goes up that way, and that loom, and you can go to the car and see the same thing.
25:31 Whereas with the schematic layout, let me just get my dual layout again.
25:37 The schematic layout, actually, it's not what it's gonna look like in the car.
25:40 Your wires don't sort of branch out from connectors like that.
25:43 This is better for seeing where each circuit goes and seeing how many different places it connects to.
25:49 On our layout side here, we get things like our splice points.
25:55 And I don't think I've got in here.
25:58 Yeah, you number them with how long the line actually is.
26:02 So, if I say that's 200 mil, the great benefit to these programs is it'll auto-calculate your lengths of wires, which is probably one of the most painful things when it comes to documenting your harness in a spreadsheet or by pen and paper.
26:16 You do have to manually go through and make sure you've got all your lengths properly and every circuit is right.
26:21 That's where these programs come into their own.
26:24 So, in this situation, basically, I would just add the lengths in for all these.
26:30 It makes it a lot easier because you're not sort of going, this wire starts at our ECU and it's three meters to the dash.
26:38 You just go, okay, it's going to branch to branch point A.
26:42 That's going to be sitting in my glove box.
26:44 I know everything from there is going to be 200, 300 mil.
26:46 My main branch from there over to the other side of the dash is going to be 1.2 meters.
26:51 And at the end, there's a cut list connections here and it'll actually give you this full list.
26:57 And this is a bad example.
26:58 I haven't finished doing it, doing the layup in this design, but it will give you each individual conductor and its length.
27:06 So, that's one of the big benefits to using these programs.
27:09 You get a good idea of how much wiring you're actually going to use.
27:14 And then when it comes to actually cutting the wires, you can be pretty confident that you've got the right length.
27:20 There is, like I said, I don't really want to go too deep into all the programs because there is a lot of information.
27:25 I mainly just want to show the things that you do actually want to keep track of.
27:30 There are great things about these as well, where you can select two different lines here, like my CAN high and CAN low.
27:37 And I can simply select twist together.
27:39 And now I know that that's a twisted pair.
27:41 Another great visual representation, you know now that circuit needs to be a twisted pair and you don't forget to do that.
27:47 And that's mainly, that's one of the biggest things with documenting.
27:51 It's making sure that you remember everything because at the end of the day, there is a lot going on in a wiring loom and you will be forgiven if you don't remember every single circuit and what every color means or what every pinout is.
28:02 So, documenting is, like I said, beneficial for yourself.
28:07 Now, these programs, Harness.Design does also have exporting functions.
28:12 So, you can then export to your CSVs and spreadsheets, PDFs.
28:16 So, you can print off and follow through and things like that.
28:19 There is a lot more to this program.
28:20 Like I said, the guys are constantly working on it.
28:23 They've probably added a heap more functions in since I last used it.
28:26 I do recommend, because there is that free option, jump in, just have a play around and make a harness for yourself.
28:32 It doesn't have to be a real harness.
28:33 Just do something dummy and yeah, go from there because you can get a pretty good idea of whether the program is for you or not, whether it's your sort of idea of documentation.
28:43 And yeah, you just go through and do everything from adding connectors to adding little labels to your connectors.
28:49 So yeah, Harness.Design is a great one.
28:51 One I've been using lately in particular is EasyWire.
28:55 I had that mentioned in my spreadsheets as a bit of a good function where you can bring your spreadsheets in nice and easily.
29:02 I've been using this just recently for a FuelTech harness into our Corvette.
29:07 It's just a patch harness, nice and simple one.
29:09 So, it's a good one to show you.
29:11 Now, this is really good for if you're more oriented to that sort of spreadsheet design, you probably prefer this.
29:18 It gives you a layout similar to our spreadsheet where we have the pin, wire type, colors, destinations, part numbers, and things like that.
29:27 It just makes it a bit quicker and easier than our actual spreadsheets because things can be easily documented and connected to different places.
29:35 Splices can be added, terminals.
29:37 The one thing I really like about this program in particular is the import device function.
29:42 So, it has an existing library.
29:44 The guys who designed it, they have this system library set up with all the stuff that they've been working on and things that have just commonplace ECUs and components.
29:54 And that'll import the connectors existing into your design with all the pinouts and everything ready to go, which makes it really easy to start.
30:02 You're not sort of guessing and scrolling through data sheets trying to find out what connector.
30:07 So, looking through here, I can decide what I actually want to connect.
30:11 There's a few here, my devices.
30:12 So, these are ones that you can add yourself.
30:14 It's really easy to add your own devices and connectors.
30:17 So, especially if you're doing these harnesses a lot, if you're doing it professionally, you can, if you're always using Emtron or MoTeC, you can just punch that in and it's always there for you to use.
30:27 And, ah, Metric.
30:31 We've got a, for an example, the Metric UPDM4 in here.
30:35 That's actually in the system library.
30:37 So, this is a good mate of mine, Declan Walsh from South Australia.
30:43 He's designed this himself.
30:44 He does his own electrical components.
30:47 He's just built a transmission controller.
30:49 He's one of the smartest guys I know.
30:50 So, you can basically select that, input device, and that's going to automatically populate into my sheet here all the way down the bottom.
30:58 I got a lot going on here.
31:00 That's the connector for it.
31:01 The UPDM4, it's already labeled.
31:04 And as you can see on the right-hand side here, description, it already tells us, you know, what pin is the outputs, the CAN bus, ground, and inputs.
31:12 So, that makes it really easy to, you're not going through, like I said, data sheets and making sure you've got the right pin out.
31:19 So, once you bring that in, you can, you then select a destination.
31:22 So, when you add more connectors in, they will all come up in here for your different connector points.
31:28 So, you can see here where I've got the UPDM points now.
31:31 If you were to say, loop it around to the same connector, that's why I click here.
31:35 The rest of these are splices.
31:37 Another thing with documentation is, keep something the same way for yourself.
31:44 Be consistent with your own naming and things like that.
31:47 So, all of these here that you see are splices.
31:49 I've got an S, dash, and then what function it is, engine speed, transmission, fuse.
31:55 That just lets me know that that is a splice and not a connector, and it's just easy to keep track of.
32:00 So yeah, quick and easy.
32:02 You can go through.
32:03 I can now connect this to my five-volt splice.
32:05 So, that's done.
32:07 I don't know where my splice is in here.
32:11 Should be here somewhere.
32:12 I think it's in the next page.
32:14 But then you add a conductor.
32:17 On the EZ-Y in particular, you do go through beforehand and add your conductors to your library.
32:24 It's nice and easy.
32:25 Just punch in a part number, or it does different colors and that sort of thing.
32:29 And you just input the ones that you use generally.
32:31 So, I have all our Tefzel M2275932 here.
32:35 So, that's all nice and easy to get to, all the different colors.
32:38 And it's nice and quick.
32:39 If you know off the top of your head, if I'm gonna do this, it's five volts.
32:42 So, I'm gonna make that orange.
32:45 So, I know it's 22-4, I did dash dash.
32:47 But you can type it in easily and it will come up at the top.
32:50 Four is yellow.
32:51 What's orange? Three, yeah.
32:54 So, now that's orange.
32:56 It's in there and it will be going to our five -volt splice, which I'm not gonna connect to an output, ignore that.
33:03 I was just using it as an example.
33:05 The other thing, like I said, you wanna keep things like spreadsheets organized.
33:10 Same thing in this.
33:10 I have different tabs here.
33:13 You can separate into separate parts of your loom.
33:16 So, if I go over to the FT600, which is the actual aftermarket ECU part, there should be a splice down the bottom here.
33:22 Nope, where did I put that? So, this is where documentation is essential because you need to keep track of where everything actually is.
33:29 I did just do this harness, so, I should be able to remember where it is.
33:32 I'm pretty sure I put, yeah, all my splices should be here.
33:35 I may not even have a five-volt splice connection.
33:38 I reckon I might've, I was gonna use it, but I didn't end up.
33:42 No, I definitely did.
33:43 It's here, let me find it.
33:45 This is why documentation is, ah, it's in expansion, that's why.
33:49 So, I have a separate part.
33:50 These are not part of the OEM ECU, not part of the aftermarket ECU.
33:56 They're connections that sort of branch out to parts that I've added into the car, like a fuel position, a fuel pressure sensor.
34:02 And here is our five-volt splice.
34:04 And this shows you now that down the bottom, the UPDM 4.1.
34:07 So, that is pin one of that connector, tells us the same thing, wire part number, color.
34:15 And every connection you do in this has its own identification number.
34:19 So, that's purely, you know, what order you've actually added in.
34:22 So, I can quick and easily go to that splice and say, hey, this is how many wires I've got.
34:26 That's one thing that very commonly I'll, you know, when I'm building a harness, I'll get to the end of a branch point and then I'll just simply count out what conductors I have there and make sure I haven't missed any.
34:35 That's where having a spreadsheet comes in real handy.
34:41 What else on this one? So yeah, so the importing device is great.
34:45 You can also do import connectors.
34:46 So, that's where coming over from, if you're doing spreadsheets already is really handy.
34:49 And same thing with the devices, you have a big library of separate connectors here.
34:55 And the great thing with that is when you import it, it already does the identification.
34:59 So, if it is letters, it will populate that automatically and what kind of function is on each of those connectors.
35:06 So, I'm trying not to get distracted here because I can go into this pretty in depth.
35:11 This also has the diagram side.
35:13 It's a bit more basic than say the harness .design, but it has the same functionality where you add in your branch lengths and then it'll give you a cut list that gives you the total wire length.
35:27 My internet will hurry up.
35:29 Each individual cut length.
35:30 Another particular part that I like about this is you can add your own custom extra amount if you're doing a concentrically twisted at a percentage.
35:39 So, make sure you get that right amount of wire.
35:41 And then Bill of Materials will automatically update each of those wire numbers and colors by a full quantity.
35:48 So, you can order a full roll rather than going through and adding up each wire individually.
35:53 So, this sort of shows you some of the capabilities of what kind of documentation is out there and all the kinds of things that you can actually document and that you want to document.
36:04 Let me just go back to my notes again and have a drink because this is, don't want to hold my voice.
36:13 I didn't, yes, like I said, I didn't want to go too much into the actual programs themselves.
36:21 One of the most important things to document is networking.
36:25 So, things like a CAN bus, that's when documenting really comes into play because the CAN bus has such a fussy, you know, things like branch links and where your branches are.
36:37 You have to keep a single backbone of your branch and then have notes coming off that.
36:42 And documenting that really is essential.
36:46 I also, I tend to have my CAN documentation separate, especially when I'm sort of doing a drawing of the branching, how it all lays out.
36:56 I'll actually make a separate section that is the CAN bus.
36:58 It will be integrated into the harness, but having it separate just allows you to visually see that you've got, you know, that backbone, you've got your 120 ohm resistors either end and, you know, what nodes are what component.
37:09 That's another thing you have to really keep track of when documenting, which really helps is what components, especially on the CAN bus, have a terminating resistor in them, which components can shut them off or not shut or have them permanently.
37:21 And that's, you know, essential for when you're designing your system.
37:27 And as I said, yeah, drawing out your harness and actually designing the physical layout comes into play, especially with, as I showed you, the physical layout on those programs.
37:37 You need to work out the total length of your wires and you can't, that's going to be pretty hard to do in your head, having every single conductor and knowing all the branches and yeah, being able to add that up.
37:48 If you can't do it yourself in your head, then I salute you and that is absolutely amazing.
37:52 But documenting is absolutely essential.
37:56 I don't think I even mentioned this at the beginning.
37:58 I apologize, but we will have questions at the end of the webinar.
38:02 I'll get into them and hopefully answer anything that you are wondering about documentation or go a bit deeper into some of the parts that I've done.
38:10 I'll get to that fairly soon.
38:11 I've got a few more things just to talk about, but yeah, if you've got any questions, sorry I didn't say it earlier, but yeah, jump in and chuck those questions in.
38:18 Also, I got too carried away and jumped straight in.
38:22 If you're watching this live, thank you, so much if you appreciate it, it will be recorded and chucked into our archive.
38:28 Also, you get an email to say you got it and you can watch it anytime you want.
38:33 It's not, you don't have to watch it now.
38:34 I should have said that earlier.
38:35 I'm sorry, I just really wanted you guys to hang around with me.
38:40 So, I guess I'll go touch a bit more on the actual life cycle, I guess, of documenting.
38:46 So, you sort of start off, as I said, with your hand sketches, your concepts.
38:51 This doesn't have to be neat and tidy.
38:52 You can literally just scribble it down on a piece of paper, get all your ideas out there, how things are gonna run, what components you have.
38:58 From there, you go into your more design stage where you're actually getting components, schematics, the connectors for each component, where they're gonna connect to, what other components have to be integrated, things like your networking canvas, basically, your circuit design and planning.
39:15 From there, then we, in our 10 or eight step process in our courses, we get into build stage, the construction planning for the build.
39:25 So, not actually jumping in just yet and actually building.
39:29 You wanna document a build process.
39:32 So, naming what connectors you're gonna start with, what conductors and things you have in there, the process that you're going through for that harness.
39:41 And basically, it's a step-by-step.
39:44 It's a recipe for how you're gonna build your harness.
39:46 That comes in very handy, especially when you get up to your concentric twisted layups and motorsport harnesses.
39:52 You really need to add things in there, even just little things like what heat shrink boot is gonna go on and when, because you might have a situation where you're halfway through a harness, you've got all your Raychem heat shrink on there, but by the end of it, you need to get a boot on in the middle and you can't because you've already built the rest of your harness and it won't actually physically go on.
40:09 So, having that documentation as far as the build process is important.
40:13 It helps you with those kinds of things, not forgetting little bits and pieces, gives you a good step-by-step thing to follow.
40:19 The next thing that you need new documentation for is your testing stage.
40:23 So, once you've built your harness, you wanna know it actually is gonna work.
40:25 You wanna know that everything does go to where it's supposed to go.
40:28 So, you just use your simple multimeter continuity checks and then your documentation, all those connected layouts that you've done, you can simply go through each one, make sure it goes to all the places it's supposed to.
40:38 If you've got splices, you need to know that it splices off to all its right points and just you're double checking that what you've built is actually going to work.
40:46 And if you haven't, it's better to fix those issues and get around them on the bench rather than upside down under the dash of a car.
40:54 Maintenance stage, which is probably one of the more important.
40:58 Like I said, we often build, document our builds and harnesses for the construction itself and sort of forget about, we may need to look at this documentation in the future.
41:10 It's one of the biggest things, I mean, you've probably had a situation where you go to your OEM car and you try and find a wiring document online or from a workshop manual and it is the biggest headache.
41:19 You don't wanna put yourself in that position with your own wiring.
41:21 So, in future, you wanna be able to look back and just go, yep, that makes sense, I'm a genius, I'm glad I did that.
41:28 Some of the common mistakes you might make, I see people make, and I've definitely made myself, is sort of a revision control.
41:35 So, you might get to a point where you've done a heap of things, but then a major component might change or you might realize that you can't actually run your wiring in a certain position.
41:44 Finding those situations, trying to make changes to your document probably isn't gonna be the best way.
41:49 Keeping that as like version one and then creating like, it's good for you in the spreadsheets and things like Harness.design, you can just duplicate your harness, make a whole nother harness and then make your changes there.
42:00 Because you might even find that once you make those changes, that doesn't actually work.
42:03 Your first version was better and you can quickly and easily go back.
42:06 So, having a few different versions, like I said, more information is often better.
42:12 And that plays into as well.
42:14 Another common mistake is the documentation doesn't actually match reality.
42:18 So, it's not much good having documentation if it says you're gonna use a 20 gauge orange wire that connects from connector A to connector B and you use a red 22 gauge that connects to connector C.
42:31 Like that's, it just, it defeats the purpose.
42:34 So yeah, just making those little changes.
42:35 It's okay to make changes as you go.
42:37 Make sure you keep it updated in the document.
42:40 Just things like missing connector information and wired identifications.
42:45 Ground documentation is a big one.
42:47 Like I had in my spreadsheet, I often keep the grounding itself as a separate documentation just to make sure that everything is good and we don't have things like ground loops.
42:56 And canned documentation, not having that done properly is another big issue that I see.
43:02 So yeah, so not just having good documentation because yeah, bad documentation is often worse than no documentation.
43:09 If you're trying to follow something along that doesn't actually match the physical harness itself, that's gonna cause you even more headaches than if you didn't have a document to begin with.
43:17 So, taking your time, it is, documenting is, as I said, it's probably one of the more boring parts, but it makes up a huge part of making a harness.
43:26 Talk a lot of people who build harnesses from scratch, that first documentation of a brand new harness or a new design often takes longer than the actual harness itself, but it pays off in the long run.
43:38 And it's often why the harness build doesn't take long is because you've done such a good job documenting it.
43:44 My notes here, I've got my personal workflow which I've kind of gone through already.
43:49 As far as choosing the right tools, yeah, so I've gone through a few different options.
43:53 It is very much a personal preference.
43:56 Because I've been using spreadsheets my whole life and I love using different formulas and scripts and things in the background, it is hard for me to go into these other programs, but that's where, I guess, things like the harness top design, the physical layout, I've always just drawn it.
44:11 So, anything is sort of better than that.
44:13 I used to be good at drawing, but these days it's often just scribbles and illegible.
44:17 So, coming into something like that was really handy for me and having that, but I've also used that as a build onto my spreadsheets.
44:24 So, you can use multiple different ways just with any kind of documentation, keeping track of where things are is key.
44:32 If you're on the more hobby level, yeah, like I said, there are those more expensive programs like Rabbit Harness that they do everything, like they are amazing program.
44:41 I have used it.
44:42 I know people who pay for it and use it.
44:44 They're often higher end companies who are building looms constantly, but it is sort of aimed at those high end professional levels and they pay for it, but it does have its benefits.
44:58 Things like your free drawing programs that you can make from scratch.
45:03 We used to sort of promote them a lot, but I kind of going away from that just because there are these better, more affordable options out there now.
45:12 And it's just a lot easier than, you might as well just stick with your drawings if you're just going to use a drawing online program, unless you really enjoy it.
45:19 So yeah, going from that, you then get into your more advanced, like the Easy Wire and Harness.Design.
45:25 I think they really do a good job of bridging that gap between the high level professional being used every day by workshops and just the hobbyists and enthusiasts who may be making looms on the side a lot, or even just once a year or once in their lifetime for their car.
45:42 Great programs to have a look at.
45:44 All of them tend to have a free option.
45:46 So, you can just go in, play around, check some connectors in, see what they do.
45:50 And yeah, see if it's something that you want to actually use.
45:54 As I said, we do have questions coming up soon.
45:56 We're finishing up here.
45:57 My voice is getting hoarse.
45:59 I don't know what else to really say about documenting.
46:02 Yeah, make sure you do a good document.
46:04 Documenting is good, but a bad document is worse than no document.
46:10 So, some of the key takeaways I want to sort of point out.
46:14 It is a full on process documenting.
46:17 It's not just something quick and easy that you're going to bust out before a harness.
46:21 You do want to take your time with it.
46:23 Make sure you have everything.
46:24 If you're doing it by hand or doing it in your spreadsheet, whatever way you want to do it, keep track of it and really think about it as you're going.
46:31 That's the whole point, is you do your thinking now and working it all out so, that you don't have to do it every time you're trying to diagnose a problem or build a harness.
46:39 Having said that, documenting a harness really comes into play, especially if you're building multiple harnesses.
46:44 If you've designed something that you want to sell or get out there, having a single document that everything refers back to makes life, so much easier when you're making looms over and over again.
46:57 Your document is going to be around for the entire life cycle of your car.
47:01 As I said, if you sell your car, you can pass it on.
47:03 It just helps you with absolutely everything.
47:05 And it is one of the most critical parts of a wiring harness and one of the most overlooked and least exciting, but it is important and it's there for a reason.
47:15 Having said that, I'm going to get into the questions now.
47:18 I reckon I'll just close with my little quote that I've got here, which I think is good.
47:23 Good harness can make a vehicle reliable, but good documentation keeps it reliable for the next 10 years.
47:28 So yeah, your car will probably break down before your documenting breaks down.
47:34 All right, let's get into the questions.
47:36 We've got here today, I've got B Will.
47:39 He says, what's the find column on your spreadsheet? Yep, good question.
47:44 That's, I'll go over to my spreadsheet here.
47:47 It's, as I said, my documents in particular can get kind of complicated with, so, my interior main loom here, I've got, so many different connectors.
47:54 When you're looking for one in particular, you don't want to be scrolling all the way through.
47:58 I've got a function that's going on here.
48:02 It sort of takes the row.
48:05 So, this one searches for the connector ID in the interior main loom page, gives us the row that it's on.
48:13 And then this basically gives me a hyperlink to that connector.
48:17 So, I can quick and easily click on that.
48:18 It takes me straight to the connector in my page.
48:21 It's just one of those little things about things like spreadsheets that you can make work for you really well.
48:28 On that, there's, what else have I got? So, like I said, with the EasyWire, I've got these EasyWire ones here.
48:34 So, this is the layout that you need for bringing it into EasyWire.
48:39 It does have to be a certain way.
48:41 So, things like your pin number, it has to be a number, not alphabetical.
48:45 So, I've got a background script.
48:47 If you don't know about that, go into Apps Script on Extensions in Google Sheets.
48:51 It gets into more complicated.
48:53 It's where you have to actually code things into the background.
48:55 Like I said, get an AI to help you out and they'll probably be able to give you something simple.
48:59 They do have a bad habit of making code that they'll say works great, but then you got to use it and it just breaks.
49:05 But you can make things that work in the background.
49:07 And basically this will take all the information from my existing spreadsheets and give it laid out here in a way I can just drag it over into EasyWire, which was really handy.
49:16 Go back to the questions.
49:17 I think I explained that well enough.
49:20 I've got here, I'm, so bad at pronouncing stuff, but Garethadams, Garethadams? Garrett, oh, Garrett Hadems, maybe.
49:32 I don't know, 4530.
49:34 Will you be sharing a copy of the spreadsheet? I won't share this one at the moment just because it is an ongoing spreadsheet that I'm working on at the moment.
49:42 We do have in our course material, there is spreadsheets that are given out.
49:48 I know, sorry, I've been logged out here.
49:50 Let me just get back in here.
49:52 Don't look at my password.
49:55 We do, yeah, give out, wrong password.
49:59 I know in the, why can't I remember my password? All right, this is embarrassing.
50:06 Anyway, hopefully you're not looking at my computer, but I can explain this off the top of my head.
50:12 The course, what is it? The club level spec course gives you the FD harness spreadsheet.
50:19 The motorsport level will give you, I think that gives you the FJ engine harness.
50:28 Sorry, I'm concentrating on my password here because I swear that's right.
50:34 Passwords, documenting your password.
50:36 I mean, you probably shouldn't document your passwords, but as long as you're the only one who knows where those passwords are, I'm back.
50:41 Where was I? We're talking about questions all the way down here.
50:46 Yeah, Gareth Adams, I think must've been a typo before because it suddenly changed.
50:50 Yeah, sharing a copy.
50:52 If there are any documents there that can be shared, the guys will chuck it in the chat or give you links, but definitely jump in the course material.
51:00 It's all, there's a lot of spreadsheets there.
51:02 I'm in the process, personally, of doing a worked example for the motorsport wiring, the next process of the FJ.
51:08 That will have that spreadsheet in there when it's all finished and done.
51:12 But yeah, at the end of the day, I don't have anything here with me right now, I apologize.
51:17 As far as things like that with the scripts and custom formulas, that's where having your own templates really comes in handy.
51:24 Have a sheet where you just play around and try and make up different things and save that elsewhere, not just on that particular document because you want to come back and make a copy of it or something.
51:37 Next one here, this is not really a question, but feel free to comment on this statement.
51:41 This is just the notes from the guys back end.
51:45 Jerry3567, what everyone seems to be missing with Deutsch is their DTM-12 plugs that loop and plug in to act like a hub with all the benefits of a waterproof connector with a five volt ground, whatever.
51:56 Also don't forget about Digi-Key with a full wire harness builder for free.
51:59 That is a good point.
52:00 I have vaguely gone into the Digi-Key one.
52:03 I haven't had a lot of experience with that one, but I'm pretty sure, yeah, it is a full wiring harness builder that is free.
52:09 That's what I mean.
52:10 There are a lot of programs out there.
52:12 I've found just along the way, some of them don't really hit particular areas where you want and it gets to the point where there's not much point going, putting your whole harness in there if it doesn't really do everything you want.
52:23 But then it is also, I'll say, you can use multiple programs.
52:27 Like I do use Harness.Design and Easywire at the same time, for their two different aspects that they do really well.
52:34 Something else, another comment, another comment by Jerry, an observation to remember, alternator wire sizing with respect to whole system, size the wire to the entire system needs.
52:43 It is usually much larger than expected, same as battery leads.
52:46 Yeah, so this is getting more on, yeah, just talking about how you're planning your wiring, which I guess I'm not sort of getting into this.
52:54 I just want to talk about the actual documenting, that part of that documenting is working out your wire sizes and things like that.
53:01 Yeah, that just comes into a whole nother sort of aspect and that's planning.
53:04 I have another webinar on planning your wire sizing appropriately.
53:09 Another comment, technology is cheap now, $200 thermal camera on Amazon, tell you a lot about where your electrical problems are.
53:15 These are sort of getting into, yeah, diagnosing and that kind of stuff.
53:19 But it is a good point.
53:21 Yeah, there's plenty of technology out there that helps you along with your documenting.
53:26 I don't think we have too many questions.
53:28 I think that's it.
53:31 Got one more.
53:32 Yeah, that's it.
53:33 That's all our questions.
53:34 Hopefully, that's good.
53:35 Hopefully, I touched on everything that you needed.
53:37 If not, if you do have more questions, jump on the forums, try and get on there all the time and answer any questions out there.
53:43 Even if, yeah, if you want some particular examples with some of those spreadsheets and stuff, chuck your question in there or ask for the example and I'll try and get on there and I can make up a template spreadsheet or something and pass it on.
53:57 Things like that, the forum's great for that.
54:00 Yeah, if you're watching this live, cheers for hanging in there and watching the whole thing.
54:04 If you're watching later, thank you for watching and hope you're enjoying your courses and everything.
54:08 Jump in the forums, as I said, chuck your questions in there or email through to the support at hpacademy .com.
54:14 Thank you again.
54:15 It's been awesome to have you here and enjoy your documenting and writing things out over and over again.
54:21 Bye.