Wiring Best Practise

Started thinking about the best way to get everything wired up, gonna be running dual end stops.

I am thinking of using a 6 core cable 22 AWG, 4 for the motor and 2 for the end stop/Z touch plate.

Will that work or should the end stop and motor wires be separated? Also would using screened/shielded cable have any benefits?

Thanks.

So long as the wire sections are stranded, not solid, it should be ok. Our motors don’t pull a whole lot of power, so the noise from the motors should not interfere with endstop wire signals.
What do you mean by “screen cable” ?

I meant to type screened/shielded cable

(Original post edited to remove confusion)

You should not need shielded cable unless you’re going to run a plasma cutter. If you’re running your machine next to something that generates a lot of EMI noise (Like a plasma cutter) then shielded might do you some good, but most of us would see no benefit. 6 conductor 22AWG stranded wire would be great. The wiring kits that Ryan sells for dual endstops are 6 conductor unshielded ribbon cables, which presented me with no problems.

I just have my touchplate coming from the board to the front of the table, but I suppose that running wires to the core would also be good.

22AWG seems like overkill to me. Technically, it would depend on the length of wires. Ryan does sell a kit that has a bunch of successful users if you just want to order the solution.

The endstops are NC, so they are pretty resistant to noise. There is always a little current going through them. They are also ignored unless you are homing, so some interference normally won’t matter.

I based this on the fact that Ryan sells 22AWG cable for the individual (dual end stop) wiring looms in the MPCNC section of the shop.

The problem with getting the bits direct from Ryan is the added cost of shipping and import tax makes it cheaper for me to source a suitable item locally.

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I used a 6-conductor stranded shielded cable just like you’re describing. On my Arduino/CNC Shield controller I experienced noisy endstops but was able to solve the issue with capacitors added between the ground and signal wires for the endstops right next to the board.

Your mileage may vary with other control boards.

I used a 8-conductor stranded shielded cable and used 3 of the remaining wires to run the laser wiring.

I used two runs for the Z axis, one for stepper motor (4 pins) and limit switch (2 pins), the second for PWM spindle speed control (4 pins) and touch probe (2 pins). I expect if I ever mount a laser I’ll be able to retask the spindle PWM connections.