T87 Swaps

kidturbo

Piston Tester
Jul 21, 2010
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Somewhere On The Ohio
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Latest US manufactured connector rendition out of Nylon 11 & 12 have arrived. Same MJF printing technique as the last ones from Asia, but a little change in nylon composite and manufacturing local made a world of difference. And in the price, but seeing is believing, as these look and fit OEM quality. So much so, thinking I'll just go into biz with my young engineer friend selling knock off connectors... LOL

I still find a couple spots for improvement of-course, and baked in some specific design errors changes to spot copies, but am super happy with how they turned out. You can see the difference between the printed connector and the injection molded wired guides, both of similar compound. So if they pass the drop test as assembled, these two be heading to beta testers to find what issues we've missed.

WIN_20240628_16_15_37_Pro.jpg

WIN_20240628_16_16_05_Pro.jpg


WIN_20240628_16_17_27_Pro.jpg

WIN_20240628_16_16_47_Pro.jpg

WIN_20240628_16_20_42_Pro.jpg

WIN_20240628_16_22_03_Pro.jpg

WIN_20240628_16_21_46_Pro.jpg

WIN_20240628_16_22_58_Pro.jpg
 

pl_silverado

Active member
Jan 29, 2012
140
106
43
Latest US manufactured connector rendition out of Nylon 11 & 12 have arrived. Same MJF printing technique as the last ones from Asia, but a little change in nylon composite and manufacturing local made a world of difference. And in the price, but seeing is believing, as these look and fit OEM quality. So much so, thinking I'll just go into biz with my young engineer friend selling knock off connectors... LOL

I still find a couple spots for improvement of-course, and baked in some specific design errors changes to spot copies, but am super happy with how they turned out. You can see the difference between the printed connector and the injection molded wired guides, both of similar compound. So if they pass the drop test as assembled, these two be heading to beta testers to find what issues we've missed.


They look like good quality pieces! Good work!
 

2004LB7

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2010
6,975
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Norcal
Before the drop test, you need to bake them at 200 degrees for 2000 hours to simulate the harsh automotive environment. Then soak in hot transmission fluid for another 1000 hours 😁
 

kidturbo

Piston Tester
Jul 21, 2010
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Somewhere On The Ohio
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The specs on nylon 11/12 is like 170c. That was my first requirement. And this Lazer printing technique gets ya higher temps than resin based printing i hear. Those baby smooth units will melt like m&ms in your pocket. So it's been a guessing game for sure.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
 

kidturbo

Piston Tester
Jul 21, 2010
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Somewhere On The Ohio
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Switching gears for a moment. While juggling multiple brain teasers projects, I sometimes forget where I left off.. But was finally able to render a first prototype VR Conditioner board for our Allison testings. Basically the breadboard I'd been testing with, just a little cleaner. With ability to shape our voltages and wave patterns fed to the T87, in case the real world doesn't line up exactly with the work bench..

VR-Converter-1.jpg

The young artist who helped "square" these waves up for us, submitted this board to JLC on Monday. Hopefully see one next week. Then some lucky sole gets test drive this mess of wires and melted plastics inhabiting my workbench..
:D
 

kidturbo

Piston Tester
Jul 21, 2010
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Somewhere On The Ohio
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Once that's VR conditioner is verified, the electronics should be golden. Have some new cool tools to let us easily monkey with the data. One developer is building a cool DBC-2-C converter App, so we can just Click & Choose what CANbus data we need to replicate, or firewall in either direction. All the scaling and masking on the fly, no AI required.

Screenshot 2024-08-05 120650.png

The printed connector on the other hand, I'm still stuck on the 3yrd line.. While the last prints look good from far, the terminal latches just arn't ready for prime time yet. Too much movement in the free state, am afraid someone will bend a pin. And about 20% of the latches, don't catch without pulling the terminals into their seat with pliers.. Pretty certain that's not in the Molex assembly best practices doc.

So am passing the torch, and files onto another developer to look at fine tuning this terminal catch.. Something about requiring cavities for filler materials to flow out of using certain processes. Not an issue if you injection mold. But I feel this latch and terminal cavity can be refined to work with our last printing technique. Might be a non-servicable assembly, but it will fit 100% OEM before I print first 100. Besides that, these are 98% complete.. 🥱LOL

Screenshot 2024-07-27 215746.png
 

pl_silverado

Active member
Jan 29, 2012
140
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43
I’ll be home Saturday, heading out for another 2000 mile trip in a week or two, if you can get one to me by the time I leave I can run it.
 

Cougar281

Well-known member
Sep 11, 2006
1,809
253
83
St Louis, MO
Is that the new Medium Duty unit? If so, it's J1939 protocol.
Pretty sure it's Allison's replacement for the A40/A50 (5th Gen tcm, I assume), but as gm replaced the A40/A50 with the T87, I HIGHLY doubt there's a calibration in existence that would work right with the LCT1000 that's in the GM Pickups.