Newton Gripper Cable Extension/Access to Gripper Internals

[camershak (Cameron Law)]

Hi,

I recently purchased a Newton Claw but unfortunately the wire that comes with it is too short for my application. I know the claw is supposed to be a sort of black box but I would like to ask you guys how difficult it would be to remove the alan bolts on the end cap and replace the shorter wire with a longer one. Im assuming that I would need to replace the wet link seal at that moment as well.

[EliotBR (Eliot)]

Hi @camershak,

@camershak

I know the claw is supposed to be a sort of black box

I wouldn’t really agree with that - we freely provide the electronic and software design files, including a schematic of the ESC it uses, and the firmware source (in case you want to modify the behaviour). There’s also active discussion on jaw modifications/alternatives elsewhere on the forum

@camershak

I would like to ask you guys how difficult it would be to remove the alan bolts on the end cap and replace the shorter wire with a longer one.

I don’t expect that should be particularly difficult. We sell the cable by the meter, but if you’re extending it quite a bit I’d recommend checking our Voltage Drop Calculator to ensure the cable can provide sufficient power. The internal ESC uses the same insulation displacement connectors as our Lumen PCBs, so your replacement may not even require soldering:

^{Photo by @cwnetdev, from a previous support request}

@jwalser

We use this punch tool on the insulation displacement connectors: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/avx-corporation/069176701602000/478-4623-ND/1650845

The connectors are designed to use with this tool … [and] you might be unsuccessful or even cause damage without this tool. Without the tool, it might help to place some wadding like folded up paper towel over the wire before pushing it [(with a flat-head screwdriver)] in order to get some conformation and even pressure application.

It’s possible that the most involved part of the cable replacement would be replicating the connections on the inside of your electronics enclosure, although you may be able to re-use the existing connectors by cutting off short lengths of the existing wires and splicing them onto the ends of the new cable wires.

Do take care to keep the o-rings clean when disassembling/reassembling, to avoid creating a leak point

@camershak

Im assuming that I would need to replace the wet link seal at that moment as well.

Our WetLink Penetrator technical details specify that the bulkheads and plugs are reusable (a few times), but the seals are single-use, so you would indeed need to replace those.

[FlyingManta (Laurent)]

I have just replaced the motor and the pcb of my arm (an R2), I was very scared but in the end it was relatively simple … and I even took the opportunity to do a complete overhaul of the arm (my breakdown was due to water leak following a small crack on the cable!!)
I disassembled all the internal components (it’s easy), cleaned everything, put silicone grease on the joints and reassembled everything.
It took me (working very slowly) one morning.