Wiring database in MS Access?

[free4trample]

Good afternoon.
First of all let me say that I am completely new to access. Used in in
HS about 8 years ago and messed with it a bit last night. I am trying
to build wiring tables in access. What I need to do is the following:

I have a large wiring mess which we are ringing out 1 cable at a time.
About 2000 wires total each going through several connectors. We are
ringing out 1 cable at a time. A cable can connect 2 connectors of the
same size or it can split into several smaller connectors. All wires
go from Data Acquisitions System to transducers. What I need is a tool
which lets me enter wires as they connect 2 connectors each. There
will be multiple types of connectors including 2 termination
connectors, the DAS connector and the Transducer itself. I can create
table of all connectors, specify their types etc, then I can enter the
wiring details with connectors and pins in each of 2 connector per
wire. What I am stuck on is the output. I need the following output:
I specify 1 of the terminal connectors, it will have up to 4 wires in
it. As output I want to see all connectors with pin numbers in order
where those wires go.

Is this doable in Access? If so, then how?

Please advise. Some sample scripts would be great, I am totally new to
access.

 

[Alex Dybenko]

Hi,
Look at templates at office site:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/FX100595491033.aspx?pid=CL100632981033

perhaps you find something suitable for you

--
Best regards,
___________
Alex Dybenko (MVP)
http://accessblog.net
http://www.PointLtd.com

 

[Larry Daugherty]

Access can be of use in what you are doing. To the best of my
knowledge, no useful template exists. Getting it done isn't trivial
but it can be very worthwhile' particularly if this operation facing
you now is part of a continuing process.

The logical consistency and completeness of your current taxonomy will
play into the ease or difficulty of implementing an Access based
solution.

What you need is essentially a Bill of Materials for your cable
assemblies with an additional level of detail. As I understand it
you'd like to buzz out every electrical point on the left/input side
to the only place(s) it should go on the right/output side.

To get to that point, you need to first identify the entities in play
in your application. All entities of a given type will reside in a
single table:

tblCable gets a cable of a single wire and also gets a 1440
wire cable

tblWire gets the descriptive identification for each wire -
color code, etc.

tblCableWire Shows the ID of each wire in each cable
------

tblConnector gets every connector of whatever type

tblPin gets the visible ID of every pin of every
connector

tblConnectorPin shows the ID of each pin in each connector
-------

Note that tblWire and tblPin are used as lookup tables [never to be
confused with Lookup Fields in tables which are to be avoided at all
costs]. Those tables will be used to add new values or select
existing values. As your application moves along it will be mostly
selecting existing values.

Note that you'll need to give Connectors and Cables Names as well as
selecting their types from lookup tables. It is assumed that the same
component types are used multiple times.

The above just sketches out the data structure on which you can build
your application. It does assume that you will build Queries, Forms
and Reports on it. It assumes that you'll use a Form/Subform paradigm
to select and show the wires in the cables and the pins within the
connectors.

With the Queries, Forms and Reports that follow you'll be able to do
such things as create a Report that shows every input connector pin
with its associated output.

If you[re really all that rusty with Access, lurk

microsoft.public.access.gettingstarted
microsoft.public.access.tablesdesign

You also might benefit from a trip to www.mvps.org/access

Post back as issues arise.

HTH