you know those little clips that come with the cortex? to hold the wires in.
vex should sell a separate pack of them because my team keeps loosing them and were not buying a new cortex for the tabs but would spend under $5 for 3 or 6 of them (1 or 2 per cortex slot) and id like to suggest including the serial y cable with the lcd display we bought one thinking we could plug pwm cables in it so we had to submit another order and wait 2 more weeks for it
I agree, would love to be able to buy those! Like my students, I thought they were some kind of packing materials, and now at least half of sets have no clips. I need about 6-8 sets, and probably 4 more for future losses. Come on VEX, sell us some plastic!
My team kept losing them too, so I emailed the VEX sales guys and they sent me a full set of the clips at no charge. Before we got the replacements, we just used tape to hold the wires in, and it worked well enough.
I agree it would be very convenient if they sold just the clips, just like how they sell extra internal gears for the motors.
i usually use zip-ties for that if i cannot find clips. i would also recommend taping the end of the pwm cables together so if you have to switch a cortex it is easier to do (you dont have to figure out what goes where).
How do you zip tie the wires to the Cortex?
We use zip ties to hold the wires to the frame so they don’t get sucked into stuff and so we know where they are.
We use tape whenever we have extenders so they don’t get disconnected at the connection (the tape goes around both connectors).
this zip tie trick is actually really clever for missing clips but also unfortunately, more permanent. basically, you know how when you connect extension cables, it is good practice to zip tie cables together by threading the tie between some of the wires before the connector plastic section and doing a loop between the two connectors? just take that threading zip ties between wires principle and tread through all of your motor inputs into the cortex. and then use several zip ties to get the length to loop entirely around the cortex.
it works if all you want is for the wires to not be pulled out. however, you have to redo the whole thing if you ever need to change connections to the cortex
When we connect wires with zip ties, it tends to damage the wires by bending them at odd angles and breaking through the insulation slowly. It is the most secure way, however.
It is. However, if you manage to conceal them enough tape would be better, for the sake of the insulation. Plus, you can get the added benefit of being able to label the wires if you’re using tape.
~Jordan
I was very glad when I saw that the Cortex had the little snap-in pieces to hold the wires in. However, I’m still disappointed that the extension cables don’t have keys on the ends. I’m not sure why they do not, except for the rare 7" cables which I don’t believe are sold anymore, but it would allow those clips to work. Right now it looks like all of the motors on our robot will be able to go directly into the Cortex except for 2, so we’ll just have to see if we can find two 7" extenders to put at the end.
Maybe as a product suggestion we should ask VEX to think about adding keys to the ends of extension cables?
~Jordan
all the new ones do have the tabs i think (we ordered some and they came with the “keys”
Interesting! Maybe we need to buy some new ones… . 
Glad to see VEX changed that, though! (But thinking about it now, it doesn’t matter much for people/teams using all 2-Wire motors, as they can use the 2-Wire Extensions and simply add the Motor Controller 29 on the end, which ends with a 3-Wire Extension with a key. For 2-Wire Ports they can simply use 2-Wire Extensions directly.)
~Jordan
Wow, I had no idea those clips actually came out. This makes life much easier.
were just buying this to save allot of money on wires and its legal as long as we use the same length as vex sells them Servo Connector Kit