Delta Cable management
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Wasn't sure of the best place to ask but what cable management do you guys guys use for larger Deltas? I ran cat6 for clean twisted pairs but on the negative it's much heavier than you'd think running from the bottom, was curious what solutions people have come up with? Previous version of my 1.5m tall delta i used terminals at the top to kinda stop the moving mass to half.
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Cables on the frame, I've been running inside the slot, and covering with "Gaffers Tape". That's like a very high quality black fabric duct tape. Totally disappears on a black anodized frame, even from fairly close. For example, there is a wire with some of this tape over it running to the extruder drive in the pic. Even looking for it, it is fairly non-obvious.
Cables to the effector are bundled and run inside a plastic mesh sleeve, with elastic about halfway up the cable (other end of elastic goes to top of printer). The elastic is designed for beading, and works VERY well. You can see it in the pic, one piece to the cable bundle and one piece to the bowden tube
My motors/power/Duet are on top. Cables up there just rest on the piece of wood, or are also stuffed into a slot and taped over.
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What elastic did you use? Any vids in motion?
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Stretch Magic. Sounds goofy. Works great.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058E7WOA
No motion vids handy, I'll try to get some.
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Couldn't find a vid, will try to get some this weekend.
Sample print. And one of the favorite things I've ever printed for my wife (her favorite).
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@danal Neat! so which two anchor points do you use for the elastic?
Edit: Ah I see where you said halfway up, so that doesn't pull on the connectors on the effector itself too much?
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Just curious as I'm planning to get a delta next, why don't you run the cable from the effector along one of the arms and mount it to the carriage moving on the arm? Tx
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@robm said in Delta Cable management:
Just curious as I'm planning to get a delta next, why don't you run the cable from the effector along one of the arms and mount it to the carriage moving on the arm? Tx
Because that would/could generate force on the "pivot" or "joint" of the arm at the head end. Bad. Very bad.
And... it really doesn't improve anything, in that the cable still has to have a slack loop (or similar) at the carriage end of the arm.
What some people do is use elastic from all three carriages to create a "flying" platform just above the actual head. Everything from cables/bowden only, to the entire extruder drive, has been "flown". Results are still mixed. I may try it someday...
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@mysta said in Delta Cable management:
@danal Neat! so which two anchor points do you use for the elastic?
Edit: Ah I see where you said halfway up, so that doesn't pull on the connectors on the effector itself too much?
I was wondering the same thing. It seems to work very well. I may try a few other locations... but I'm not sure how to measure results.
I am a delta/kossel fanatic; at the same time, one of the things that bothers me is the asymmetric nature of the cables and the bowden. I just don't have any super clever solutions. I probably will at least bring the cables up to the center of the top, someday.
Also, please note that my extruder driver motor is WAY to high for the optimal length of bowden tube. The motor should be about 60% of Z height. It is where it is because of the cable (wire) I had the day I installed it. And I've been too lazy to move it.
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So I've got a delta with a lot of cables:
2 Cat 5 to the smart effector
Drive cable to the Nimble extruder
Water cooling hoses.I've done a quick video to show how the cables move around.
Since my electronics are at the base of the machine, I loop the electronics and drive cable up and over and support them with a quality keychain retractor. The water cooling hoses just kind of coil up without any real drama all by themselves. I've had only one issue with wire breaks but I did do away with the 2x3 molex connector on the smart effector and just use Dupont 2 pins (24v hotend), and have had fewer issues since. I can move anywhere in the build volume and even position outside the (over-sized) bed area to do filament purges.
I've tried flying extruder and whilst it probably beats bowden (although the margin is smaller since capricorn and pressure advance came along) it does add some mass (indirectly) and inertia and requires slightly smoother XY jerk/accel. Remote extruder wins for me. But the drive cable (and my water hoses) do the same thing they create "indirect" XY inertia, as such recent experimentation has seen me go back to 1000 accel for XY and 500 jerk.
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Got link for the retractable ring? Was just thinking how cool it would be to have something like that but with adjustable pull.
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All my end stop cabling runs up each tower on the inside (the center of the extrusion) so its totally invisible, even at the top I cut a small section out of the back of the slot to allow the cable to turn and come back down to the stop switch, cabling to the effector and extruder run up the rear tower in the slot on the back. I'm using a slightly modified version of DC42's cable clip.
The cable then passes over the top of the extruder and is spiral wrapped to the bowden tube down to the effector.
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@dadiy said in Delta Cable management:
All my end stop cabling runs up each tower on the inside (the center of the extrusion) so its totally invisible, even at the top I cut a small section out of the back of the slot to allow the cable to turn and come back down to the stop switch, cabling to the effector and extruder run up the rear tower in the slot on the back. I'm using a slightly modified version of DC42's cable clip.
The cable then passes over the top of the extruder and is spiral wrapped to the bowden tube down to the effector.
Yeah that sounds pretty standard. In my case my towers are 1.5 meters tall so you basically have 1.5 meters of cable that have to extend and then be able to home without getting in the way.
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@mysta said in Delta Cable management:
@dadiy said in Delta Cable management:
Yeah that sounds pretty standard. In my case my towers are 1.5 meters tall so you basically have 1.5 meters of cable that have to extend and then be able to home without getting in the way.
Just for fun, how about some pics of your 1.5 M tall printer? In a different thread, if you prefer...
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@danal Sure! It's relevant in this thread - I'll grab some pics when I get home. Cables and stuff are still 'temporary'.
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@mysta Yes, My towers are just over 1.7 meters tall so i just made up some cables before inserting the towers into the base.
For anyone interested there are a few build photos of my printer here - https://imgur.com/gallery/O1jtC I do need to add some of the finished printer but these give an idea of size and include the custom table I built which suspends the filament under the table on a lazy suzanne.
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Here’s two pics of it finished showing the cables etc.
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@dadiy So your cables will reach the top like that without strain?
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Yes. It’s been running like that for 6 months without issue. My biggest problem was the extruder. I bought a Titan extruder but it didn’t have the grip for my tube. I’m now on the Bondtech and never had a problem.
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@mysta said in Delta Cable management:
Got link for the retractable ring? Was just thinking how cool it would be to have something like that but with adjustable pull.
I had a dig around for it but I can't find that particular unit for sale anymore. Its got a metal cable inside and is fairly sturdy, they're all fairly similar.
