I managed to snap the mini USB socket off the controller board and am replacing it with a RAMPS 1.4 kit.
During the modification I am planning on re-wiring the entire printer using a thicker ribbon cable.
I’d like to know what gauge, preferably in AWG (despite not living in America) the supplied ribbon cable is.
Also for comparison are the cables attached to the connector plugs (for for the motors etc… to the control board) 20AWG or 26 AWG as my eyesight isn’t quite good enough to read the writing on the side of the cables?
The pre-crimped harness supplied with the kit are 26AWG.
The rainbow ribbon cable is 7x0.1mm strands, which I think makes it 30AWG.
I’m up to the wiring stage and are contemplating whether to replace the ribbon cable with various size fig-8 cable, suitably sized so I can crimp wires direct onto board and not use the supplied wire harnesses.
Something else I will do is not directly solder the motors and micro-switches to the lengths of cable, I’ll put a wire to wire connector between so if changes need to be made, I don’t have to cut open the heat shrink and re-solder things.
(just a personal preference)
Screw terminals on the heated bed too, is something I’ll go with also. instead of directly soldering
Thank you, my eye sight seems to be a bit rubbish at the minute so just can’t read the numbering on the wires.
I would recommend upgrading the wiring as the ribbon cable is very thin, I do worry about bends in the ribbon cable causing a broken connection so as part of changing the controller I will upgrade the wiring as well. I was thinking of using Cat5e cable as it can be bought cheaply in 24AWG single core form which would allow a lot more power if required.
As part of the board change I am doing away with the wiring harness/plugs etc… as they won’t all fit the new board. What I am going for is a 24pin ATX motherboard extension and an 8pin PCI-E power extension. They’ll be cut in half and soldered to the wires going to the new board and the wires going to the components of the printer allowing simple disconnection of the board with 2 plugs.
I might follow in your footsteps and add 2/4 way plugs to the steppers and microswitches allowing ease of replacement etc… Part of the controller kit I have coming includes a set of 3 optical endstops which will probably be used at the home position, allowing the mechanical switches to be positioned as 200+mm endstops. I like the idea of screw terminals on the heatbed, I’ve got a few blocks of them in the shed.