Stepper motors

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Excellent, glad it's sorted.

[Ex contributorParticipant @mgnbuk]

I have some 4 pin plugs and sockets connecting the steppers back to the control cabinet.

This isn't intended to be critical of you, Steve, as what you have done is what appears to be done often on DIY builds – but did you actually need a quickly detachable connection here ?

From a reliability perspective, every connection is a potential problem – your plug and socket introduces two soldered and one mechanical connection between motor and drive. Putting a gland in place of the chassis socket and routing the stepper motor wiring directly to the drive connector without any intermediate connections would have eradicated 3 potential trouble spots. This would obviously make removing the motor a bit more of an effort – but how often would you be doing that ?

On the drive systems used on industrial CNC machinery, it is not unusual for drive manufacturers to specify thet intermediate connections are to be reduced to a minimum, but preferably to connect the motor cable to motor at one end & drive at the other directlly. The fewer the breaks between the two the better & any joint that can be designed out can only be a good thing – particularly with soldered connections, which (in my experience) cause more problems than crimped.

In my previous employment (CNC retrofit & rebuild), warranty visits reduced when the drive manufacturers introduced pre-made & tested cable assemblies that were installed in one piece. Prior to that introduction, most issues when we made up cables ourselves (frequently broken at terminal strips for ease of wiring) had been caused at terminal blocks or soldered multipin connectors

Nigel B.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Well done, Steve … They do say that Confession is good for the Soul

MichaelG.

[Steve PaveyParticipant @stevepavey65865]

Posted by mgnbuk on 26/07/2021 19:20:29:

I have some 4 pin plugs and sockets connecting the steppers back to the control cabinet.

This isn't intended to be critical of you, Steve, as what you have done is what appears to be done often on DIY builds – but did you actually need a quickly detachable connection.. etc

Nigel B.

You’re right Nigel. I did think about this early on in the build, but it really had to be like this because of the space restrictions in the workshop, and the need to have the machine on castors, along with a control cabinet fixed on the wall. I also used some decent connectors from RS rather than cheap imports from you know where! Of course, as you now know I was let down badly by the bloke doing the soldering! At least I know where to look first if a similar problem arises in the future.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I use XLR 4-pin connectors for all but 3 of the 9 steppers I'm using in the workshop. The 3 are the XYZ axes of the Novamill, and those are connected by a big multi-way plug and socket originally specified by Denford. So far in 10+ years I haven't had any problems with them.

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