Pictures of Cable Chain to Cable Chain Routing

[Stefan]

Would it be possible to get some pictures of the wiring routing between the two cable chains near the Y axis motor? From the picture it almost looks like you've cut out the back of the chain a bit.

Also, an up close picture of the wiring routing on the gantry itself would be very useful too.

One final question I have is grounding. I remember reading somewhere that a ground wire should tie the gantry to the Y axis rail, and the Y axis rail to the frame/X axis rails. Is this true?

Thanks!

[hendrik]

Hi,

I've added a T-profile to the x-axis to support the cable chain:

Aluminium T-profile on the x-axis, supporting the cable chain

IMG_20180627_195749_small.jpg (159.54 KiB) Viewed 6550 times

T-profile mounting detail

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T-profile mounting detail

IMG_20180627_195825_small.jpg (97.21 KiB) Viewed 6550 times

The y-axis cable chain rests on the table. I've raised the attachment next to the x-motor using some wood:

y-axis cable chain detail

IMG_20180627_195851_small.jpg (116.89 KiB) Viewed 6550 times

Like this the cables run over the x-motor without any interference:

y-axis to x-axis transission

IMG_20180627_195855_small.jpg (147.28 KiB) Viewed 6550 times

On the head I again used some wood to mount the cable chain:

cable chain mounted to the head

IMG_20180627_195953_small.jpg (146.71 KiB) Viewed 6550 times

head wiring details

IMG_20180627_200028_small.jpg (159.36 KiB) Viewed 6550 times

I don't have a ground wire for the frame (yet?). I want to add one, but I'm not sure if I'll ever do.

Cheers,

Hendrik

[Stefan]

Here's what I ended up doing for the X to Y axis. Any other routing and it would limit the travel enough that you couldn't adjust the limit switch enough to prevent it crashing into the wires.

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20180628_224134-1024x576.jpg (141.33 KiB) Viewed 6537 times

Here's the routing for the head.

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Here's how I mounted the electronics and power supply.

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[Stefan]

Here's a picture of my work area layout. It's slightly wasteful space wise, but I'm reasonably content with it for now. I have about 4 more components to attach to the table before I can run the PCB that is positioned. I've found that as you add a component to the table it is the best time to do a dry run placement of it to make sure you have the rotation right.

20180628_094720-1024x576.jpg (138.6 KiB) Viewed 6536 times

I originally had the components simply taped to the table. That worked like shit though, since if a tape was curved it would eventually pop up. And when it pops up any component that doesn't have the plastic cover on it goes flying.

I would have to say that having trays for at least the paper tapes is a requirement, since they simply don't stay stuck to the table.

Since I plan to run and a dozen boards at a time the ability to advance the paper tapes by sliding them down is a time saver. In addition, the alignment trays I have for the non-paper tapes makes placing those parts much faster.

[Stefan]

Here's a video of the first board I placed to test things out. It didn't have fiducials, so I used a couple pads of components. That worked while dry placing conponents during testing, but once I pasted the board it couldn't find the pads anymore, and the pads themselves weren't as accurately defined since paste bled slightly under the stencil. I ended up lining the board up so that nominal locations worked well enough. I had the tapes taped directly to the table at this point.

[alan]

Hi Stefan

What do you use to hold the component strips, it looks very interesting and promising (Can't make it out in the photo. Busy building my LitePlacer, arrived about two weeks ago.

Regards
Alan