Underware 2.0 – Open Source Infinite Cable Management
32 comments
·March 17, 2025smw
Can I buy pieces somewhere without buying a printer?
nkrebs13
Will probably play around with this, looks slick.
For folks looking for some other options I bought this cheap server raceway: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008VFAP. Super nice to run the cables into the slots and then let the mess be inside there. I screwed one part into the desk and the cover I cut into 4 pieces so I can remove only one piece if I need to move cords around or whatever.
3d printed a few pieces for power supplies and a power strip but for the most part all cables go to the raceway. I had something similar to this original "underware" at some point but it was a pain in the ass whenever I changed cables/etc. So many extra holes in the bottom of my desk now
prennert
This project seems to be building on top of Multiboard [0], which is a lattice that is used as a base to mount all those runners and equipment holders on.
So the idea is that you put a lattice up with "a few" screws and then you can change everything else underneath without having to screw around any further.
pftburger
+1 on this. Works wonders, costs nothing.
xorcist
The title of the page is Underpants 2.0, but the renderings are nothing like what the title promises.
I guess there is some automatic translation going on. I've said it a thousand times but I can say it again:
There are very few universal truths in life but here's one: Do not use uncalled for automatic translations. Ever. Certainly no type of translation without prooreading.
It is deeply disrespectful of your users. Should they want to read the page in another language than it was published in, there is a perfectly functional button in their web browser.
Your users get by on the rest of the web, and they can surely manage your page. Unless they have to hunt for the existence of your home cooked "language" setting, which may or may not even exist, without which they have to guess which words translate to underpants. It may be fun the first time, but believe me, it gets boring quickly. Any web shop that presents me with a butchered version of my locale gets closed immediately without giving it any further attention.
jstummbillig
Somebody is trying to be more inclusive (because what else would any attempt at translating content be?). It's okay to have an opinion about, well, anything, but, what I think is "deeply disrespectful" is completely ignoring good intentions and pretending to be able to speak for a group of people in an overly forceful and authoritative manner.
xorcist
> Somebody is trying to be more inclusive
Not likely. No one ever felt included by an automatic translation. It is impersonal and clearly comes off as such.
Stastical translation tools are tremendous and helps me regularly to understand the gist of texts in other languages, but I understand that it is at best an approximation and I am prepared that the details may be somewhat off.
Being presented a butchered text where key words must be guessed what they were translated from is deeply disrespectful of other language speakers, yes. It really is. Why else serve them a second-rate quality web page? A translation can only make the text worse. It can not make the text better. This time it was only a question of underpants but sometimes the result can include literal insults.
> because what else would an attempt at translating content be?
Misguided?
I'm trying to be kind and helpful here: Please stop this. It is not helpful, and every popular web browser already offers a drop down menu bar button with a translation tool that is not only potentially better but also under user control. There is no upside to this user hostile design and the downside is that it is confusing and potentially derogatory.
LegionMammal978
Are we looking at the same page? 'Underware', the name of the product, seems like a simple pun: it's hardware that goes under your desk (or wherever else) to simplify cable management. The descriptions are perfectly clear, if a bit heavy on the marketing-speak.
xorcist
Of course we aren't. That's the whole problem. We have different locales. That results in a header somewhere with the languages I understand in order of fluency (which includes English, mind you), as per the specification. And the author of that web page decided to turn on an automatic translation tool to present its output instead of the original web page.
That tool is particularly bad as it somehow decides that underware is similar enough to underwear that it should map the word to the word for underpants in my language. The rest of the page is a little better, but not by much. But the problem here isn't the quality of tool itself which results in particularly amusing choice of words but by the use of the tool itself.
Don't do that. If the end user wants to read your page in a different language, they are perfectly capable of clicking that button in their web browser and deal with the outcome themselves.
Just don't. I will not hunt down the language selection button on your badly translated web site and I will not change my web browser settings for your site alone. I will simply choose not to visit your web site, and I suspect many others will do the same.
slightwinder
I also see it translated into my local language, and indeed the title was localized into the equivalent of underpants. Maybe OP was retranslating it back to English?
Strange enough, the description has a hint about the translation, and I even can turn it off to get the English original, but this is not working on the Headline or the website itself.
maeln
If I open the page, I see "Sous-vêtements 2.0", the translation for underwear in French. Sadly, this does not look like 3d printable lingerie.
0x457
If you watch Hands on Katie on youtube (Katie created original underwire) it will all make sense.
cassianoleal
The title is Underware, not Underpants. Katie is Welsh, so I don’t see why there would be any automatic translations. I also fail to see how any of this might be disrespectful to their users. Care to elaborate?
viccis
This was almost certainly done by Makeworld, not Katie, which makes the top comment even more pointless and needlessly vitriolic. Katie might read these comments, but Makerworld's UI people are not likely to take orders from an irate Hackernews user's screed.
h1fra
I was greeted with a surprising "Underwear 2.0" (sic) in french, so not only it's translated against my will (my computer is configured in english) but it's badly translated
KaiserPro
Hands on Kate, has an actual real sense of humour, so you know, I strongly suspect its Kate's deliberate choice.
imperialdrive
Holy smokes that's a tough to view site for mobile folks.
lovich
Interesting looking project and I’ll probably try printing it out and experimenting with it, but as an aside
Why is the maker and her site so porny but not porn? I thought I had clicked the wrong Instagram link and had ended up on an Only Fans model with all the downblouse shots, but it’s never mentioned or sold, just talks about the project.
MikeTheGreat
For what it's worth, I had the same reaction as you. The still image of the YouTube video prominently features a woman standing, arms spread, with her nipples clearly visible because she's not wearing a bra under her shirt.
Other comments here shed some light on this.
Apparently the original creator was aiming to create a system that managed the wires under her desk, and named it underwire. An underwire is a part of some bras, which is how they got to the suggestive branding.
It looks like this is version 2.0 of the project / a fork of the project so they changed the name slightly to underware, as in 'hardware under your desk, to manage wires'
So it's a bit off for me (use sex to sell beer; tell me I'm smart to sell nerd stuff) but at least it makes sense now.
Hope that helps!
philsnow
You’re getting downvoted but I’m similarly put off by the gratuitous downblouse and upskirt shots (at least in the first underware video [0] which is itself referred to from the linked video).
I was more put off by how long the video is and how little the actual underware system is on display. It seems more like a branding exercise for the person in the video. Contrast that to the tirst gridfinity video [1] which yea also has terrible puns and wordplay, but which spends way more time showing off the project.
28304283409234
> Why is the maker and her site so porny but not porn?
Sex sells.
The logo is a breast with nipple.
lovich
I guess I’m surprised at how quaint the commercialization is then.
SlackingOff123
I've been looking for a reason to buy a 3d printer and I think I've finally found it!
Anyone care to recommend some suitable (and beginner friendly) printers?
lovich
Thirding on Bambu lab although they are supposed to be announcing their newest model any day now. You may want to wait a few weeks to see if you could pick up someone’s p1p or p1s for cheap if they are upgrading
sturadnidge
If you want something that ‘just works’, it’s hard to go past the entry level options from Bambu Lab despite their march towards Cloud and ecosystem lock in. If that kind of thing bothers you, the new Creality ‘Hi’ series is probably where I’d start if I was starting today. For other useful things to print, check out Gridfinity as well!
dpe82
Bambu Lab. Not open source friendly but they're the first company whose printers more or less Just Work.
KaiserPro
Oooo nice, gridfinity but for cables
haarts
Holy cow, that guy is intense! Also: cool stuff! I know what I have my neighbor print for me.
reimertz
I've been looking for something like this for quite some time so really happy to see an open-sourced solution with a lot of happy users.
Will report back how the 3D-printing goes.
jmclnx
There was a software company named Underware in the DOS Days that made a great editor. They were bought by Borland and then it disappeared.
I do not want to deal with a Captcha so I do not know what the article is about. But the 2 posts here seems to be happy.
null
I haven't played with the 2.0 stuff, but I do have the original Underware on the underside of my desk.
I don't like the core concept of routing cables through what is essentially 3d printed trunking. It's a ton of printing, and a ton of faff to install. Instead I use their cable hooks at various points along a cable run. Much quicker and easier to manage after the fact.
This is probably the most useful underware thing I've printed thus far, for securely holding various PSU bricks: https://www.printables.com/model/1119354-double-clip-cable-t...