Well, I am just about done running the wiring.
The first thing I did was solder on the wires for the X axis limit switch. To get extra clearance on the Y axis, I flipped this to the other side (just in case you are wondering. I ran the wire accross the gantry in the rear underside slot. For now, I just taped it in with masking tape, but will put a slot cover on later when I make my next order to misumi. The wires are twisted pair wires I made from 22 AWG connector wire I had from Radio Shack. I chuck them in an electric drill and carefully controll the angle of the wires to the twist point and tension with my hands. I can usually get them to twist at about 6-8 twists per inch. This should help reject noise coming onto the board. I wrapped the wires in nylon cable sheith and heat shrinked the ends. This made the cable easier to run and looked very nice.
- X axis limit Switch
The next thing I did was connect up the Y axis limit switch and run the pair of wires through the cable carrier. I should mention also that the nylon cable sheith adds significant diameter to the wire, but 2 limit switch wires could be stacked vertically in the cable carrier raceway. Even without the sheith, there one couldn't fit 3 on top of eachother.
- Y axis limit switch
You can also see the masking tape holding in the X axis limit switch cable.
The next thing I did was connect the 4 conductor wire to the X axis motor. I split the cable sheith back about 6 inches so I could get heat shrink on each wire. I cut the wires and connected them on 1 inch intervals so that I wouldn't increase the diameter much at one spot. Once soldered and insulated, I was able to push the whole thing back into the cut cable shieth and then I put the nylon webbing over the whole cable and fed it through the cable carrier. I found a neat way to run the wiring with an adhesive backed cable tie mount. I put it on the metal plate that holds the motor mount screws. I cut the corners out to make it fit well. It keeps the cable secure and does not let it move when the gantry moves. I would reccomend that people run their cables this way. It also keeps the cable off the v-rail.
Here's a pic showing the the wiring running to the motor. You can see some of the colored wires showing through the split shieth.
- X axis motor wiring
I ran the cable this way because my gantry arrangement allows the Y axis car to move all the way over and contact the side plate that the motor is mounted on, so I couldn't let wires or tubing sit there or I would loose usable gantry space.
- X axis wire mount
Here's a pic showing the way I ran the cable and the tubing into the Y axis cable carrier.
- Y axis cable arrangement
Here''s a view of the exit. You can see the tubing coming out with the rout to the rear, the motor cable, and the 2 limit switch wires. I fed them into 1 cable nylon cable shieth and then bound that witht he cover safety switch line and ran that to the driver board.
- Y axis cable carrier exit
I tell you what, the hardest thing so far has been running the tygon tubing through the Y axis cable carrier. This raceway has to be shared by a 4 conductor motor wire and 2 sets of limit switch wires. It was really difficult to get the tube run after I got the wires installed. I tried about 5 times before getting it right. The tygon tubing just barely fits in my raceway with the other wires, so it was a tight squeeze to begin with. To make matters worse, the tubing is very "grippy" (it has a high friction surface and doesn't slide along anything well). I used an old piece of cat 6 cable I had around to feed through and use as a pull wire. I tried taping it off with masking tape to connect the tubing and wire. The first try, I only got about 2 inches in b/4 the tape broke. Then I tried the saliva lubrication, maybe 8 inches. Then I tried lubing the raceway up with hand soap by draging the cable back and forth and putting soap on it... about 10 inches. Then I tried feeding it and lubricating the tubing as it went in, about 2 inches from almost all the way and I actually broke the shieth of the cable I was yanking on!! Finally, i used duct tape and lots of soap on the tubing and I got it through! The duct tape came off the cable after it made it through about 3 inches. I was able to use a pliers to pull the tubing through. If I were to do this over again, I would use a wider cable carrier and/or maybe not put cable sheith on everything. Anyhow, I didn't break the tubing and it's in with the wires run as well. The tubing still caries air through it so I am calling this a big success.
Here's a view of the mounted driver board with room to spare. I will put the arduino's in the space to the left of the driver board. The X/Y limit switches come accross the mouning board vertically and meet up with the cover safety switch which runs horizontally accross the botom of the pic. The safety switch wire follows the extrusions to the lower, right, front corder of the machine. The soldering looks the same except the red wire is connected to the normally open side of the switch.
- Wire routing to driver board
The Pololu driver board was mounted by attaching PC stand offs I got at Radio Shack to the board, marking the spot and gluing them down with super glue. I markde the spot where the stand offs were when the board was aligned, then I puddled a little super glue and put the board in place. The spacers are M3. I didn't have any long enough and I didn't feel like going to buy some somewhere. The glue method worked well and I didn't have to worry about drilling holes in the right spot. You can also see a scrap piece of twisted pair wire I made.
- Pololu driver board mount
One other change I'm going to make is getting a right angle barb fitting and routing the hose as shown here so it doesn't interfere with gantry motion.
- nozzle change
I'm also going to have to tap the fitting a little deeper. As is, I can only get a few threads in by hand and there is a lot more room to get the fitting in deeper.