Details about wiring and wire organization?

Hi!

I’ve just finished building the hardware for my MPCNC. Looks nice :slight_smile: On to the electronics!

I feel like there aren’t as detailed instructions on the electronics side of things… :face_with_raised_eyebrow: So, I have some questions!

  1. ~When creating the series wires, I assume I’m hooking up both x motors in series - correct? (Makes sense…just double checking)~ Forget this. Will wire one motor to one driver instead.

  2. Where do you usually put the wires? Through the tubes?

Anyone got pics of how you’ve organized your cables? :slight_smile:

I have to agree with you about the wiring. The instructions take the builder through the mechanical portions of the bild in an almost Ikea-like fashion, and then there is little direction when I comes to the wiring. For my original Burly build, it was a pleasant 10 hours over two days to get the mechanical portions assembled…and then it took me three additional days to figure out what I wanted to do with the wiring and then 3D print some parts. To be fair, there are multiple solutions, and some variation, but I think it would beneficial to have an “official” solution with some pictures for both serial and dual-endstop wiring.

With that said, yes, X1 and X2 are wired in series to the two arms of the serial wiring harness. If one of the motors turns the wrong way (easier to check before putting the wires inside anything), you can just flip the connector to reverse the motor.

As for where to put the wires, there seems to be three solutions:

There are some 3D printed parts around to support all three of these solutions, but they are not part of the official files, and you will have to seek them out.

1 Like

It would be awesome if at least the wiring harness Ryan sells have very simple instructions.

Here’s how I did mine:

My controller is mounted in the front left of this picture on the side wall of the enclosure.

Front X stepper and right Y stepper runs through the tubes to the other side. I then use connectors to attach both X steppers onto a single cable running across the back of the machine and down the side to my controller. The Cable running across the back is in a ‘tape measure trick’ cable chain.

The two Y steppers run down the left side to the controller. This is ran through a ‘tape measure trick’ cable chain.

The Z stepper and spindle are ran through a ‘tape measure trick’ cable chain riding in a piece of aluminum angle on mounts.

I have connectors on each individual stepper to make it easier to remove/replace if needed. The connectors I used are small enough to be pulled through the tubes. Having both the Z stepper and the spindle on connectors allows me to easily remove the entire Z axis for maintenance or swapping out for other tools (in the future).

Most of this setup was created over time on the last version of the MPCNC I owned. I think it got re-wired 2-3 times over the course it was using. I have a build log somewhere on the site with more pictures and links to 3d printed parts I created.

2 Likes

Thanks all :heart:

I am getting started on wiring, and I have the wiring harness from Ryan. I will take pictures and start a doc pull request.

1 Like

I added pictures of what I did in my thread.

1 Like