Saturday, March 27, 2010

Wiring the steppers

Here is the wiring diagram. Depending on your definition of "forward" and "backward" or "up" and "down" - your steppers may end up going the "wrong way". The best choice is to see if you CAM software can invert the outputs. Or you can swap the stepper windings. It's not obvious what to do, if you need to know, drop me a line and I'll draw the "swapped" version.

The nature of this type of project is that it goes together - and it comes apart. Often. So I used connectors (from Jameco) that had enough pins (9) and sufficient current carrying capacity. Get at least one M and one F for each motor, you need to order the individual pins and sockets a-la-carte. Get an extraction tool also. If you have the extra $, the proper crimping tool would be nice too.

Here's the Y-Axis motor showing the 9-pin Molex connector. I opted for the 9-pin connector vs. a 6-pin as I am planning to run my limit and/or home switches through the same connector.

2 comments:

  1. Hey! Was reading your log - nice work man :) I wanted to offer my experience with the limit switches - you say that you're planning on running them through the same connector - you will no doubt end up with noise from the wires to the motor causing false trips of the limit switch - I had to run my wires for the limit switches separately... if you do run your limit switch wires with your motor wires - you should investigate putting a capacitor to filter out the noise :)

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  2. Indeed. I was careful to say the same connector, but not the same cable. I've read lots of horror stories on induced noise. I was thinking a small shielded cable next to the power cable. May still have issues. Some day . . .

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