Duet3D PCB delta printer effector sneak preview
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Pre order any time soon?
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The PCB effector uses two connectors, one for signal wires and one for power wires. This is to reduce the risk of mis-wiring causing a short. A magnetic connector might work for the signal wires, but I doubt that it could be used for the power wires.
still requires wire but here is an example of magnetic quick change tools with what appears to be USB for quick disconnect.
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Phoenix Contact also makes some hybrid quick connect plugs and cables that run power and signal through a single cable
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Phoenix Contact also makes some hybrid quick connect plugs and cables that run power and signal through a single cable
Can you provide a link to the specific range of connectors?
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Can you provide a link to the specific range of connectors?
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the connectors are sold as just connector or connector with cable factory soldered in various lengths. I used some of their products on my CNC machine, top quality stuff allowing compact design.
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They also work with different industries to make specialty terminal blocks and connectors. You might have some luck getting a hybrid connector made for 3d printers that uses the M8 profile if you do not need all the contacts that the M12 provides.
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Thanks. Those are nice looking connectors, but at more than £25 per pair, too expensive for us to consider using.
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Thanks. Those are nice looking connectors, but at more than £25 per pair, too expensive for us to consider using.
Always more than one way to skin a cat, I have not dug into any of these but it appears there are other options as well as some china knock off versions:
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Thanks. Those are nice looking connectors, but at more than £25 per pair, too expensive for us to consider using.
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Not sure on pricing but lumbergautomation (Belden) makes a similar plug as well
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they are also very bulky for installing on a effector and I suspect have considerable more mass than a pair of Molex headers which are probably just as quick to disconnect!
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Cant you just use a suitable IDC connector for both signal and power
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IDC isn't suitable for hotends, as they can draw 3.3 amps, even 5 amps in the case of some 60 watt cartridges.
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IDC isn't suitable for hotends, as they can draw 3.3 amps, even 5 amps in the case of some 60 watt cartridges.
I was thinking along the lines of doubling up spreading the load across the connectors, 24v on a 60 watt heater cartridge comes out at 2.5 amps so if you use for example
16 way flat ribbon cable 28 AWG (7x36) Stranded 300V that should work.Just in the same way some are powering nema 17's with CAT5/6
But hey I'm a Mech Eng not Electrical….
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Yes it's possible to use ribbon cable to carry power if you use enough conductors. My Ormerod 1 uses ribbon cable to power the 10A bed heater. I think it's a 40 way cable using 19 ways in each direction to carry the heater current and 2 for the thermistor. To connect a hot end this way, then in order to allow for using a 12V 50W heater plus fans etc. you would need about 28 conductors, making it quite a wide ribbon cable and difficult to wrap around a Bowden tube on a delta printer. A!so, you would want to have the Duet designed with a matching ribbon cable connector on it.
For future intelligent hot end designs and Duets, I'm looking at using one RJ11 connector to carry the signals and a 2-pin power connector of some sort to carry 12V or 24V power. But for now the smart effector is designed to work with the current generation of Duet electronics (and perhaps other electronics too) so that is a not a possibility. On my own delta I plan to change the wiring to use two 8-core cables: one for the signals, and the other for the heater (using 2 pairs of conductors in parallel) and fans.
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Yes it's possible to use ribbon cable to carry power if you use enough conductors. My Ormerod 1 uses ribbon cable to power the 10A bed heater. I think it's a 40 way cable using 19 ways in each direction to carry the heater current and 2 for the thermistor. To connect a hot end this way, then in order to allow for using a 12V 50W heater plus fans etc. you would need about 28 conductors, making it quite a wide ribbon cable and difficult to wrap around a Bowden tube on a delta printer. A!so, you would want to have the Duet designed with a matching ribbon cable connector on it.
For future intelligent hot end designs and Duets, I'm looking at using one RJ11 connector to carry the signals and a 2-pin power connector of some sort to carry 12V or 24V power. But for now the smart effector is designed to work with the current generation of Duet electronics (and perhaps other electronics too) so that is a not a possibility. On my own delta I plan to change the wiring to use two 8-core cables: one for the signals, and the other for the heater (using 2 pairs of conductors in parallel) and fans.
If you are going to dual 8 core (16 total) you could use the 4 twisted pair RJ45 plugs mated to PCB mounted 8 way RJ45 sockets and silicone 8 core wire should be flexible enough.
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@CaLviNx:
I was thinking along the lines of doubling up spreading the load across the connectors, 24v on a 60 watt heater cartridge comes out at 2.5 amps so if you use for example
16 way flat ribbon cable 28 AWG (7x36) Stranded 300V that should work.Just in the same way some are powering nema 17's with CAT5/6
But hey I'm a Mech Eng not Electrical….
Doubling up pins is bad practice. There's no way to guarantee the load is shared evenly - if the resistance of one is a bit different, the load seeks the lower resistance path.
Ask Rigidbot how it worked out to spread a load across multiple pins. Here's an example:
https://plus.google.com/101640661041406923828/posts/SL7EXPS1Rro
Molex MicroFit connectors are rated for 5 amps and would be a more suitable choice.
Nema17 over Cat5/6 is reasonable, as they make RJ45 connectors rated at 1.5 amps which is typical for a stepper motor. The biggest issue using network cable on a stepper motor is the repeated flexing.
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You can get stranded core RJ45 that's still rated for 1.5 amps.
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Yes, but not everyone knows that. Better stated: The biggest issue with network cable on stepper motors is folks using solid core cable which can't handle the flexing.
