Some Photos to give other makers some ideas
Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2015 10:30 am
Here are some photos of my almost finished LitePlacer. Maybe they can aid other makers how to place the cables. I modified the photos.
I used a 12 wire chainflex cable material from the gantry to the connector box and 8/12/16 pin connectors with 12/12/16 shielded cables to the TinyG.
The Y toolchain is running below the X Motor. That gives an optimal routing for the vacuum tube to the pump and brings the cables directly in front of the connection boxed. Power and sensors connection are strickly separated
All cables are bundled in two connection boxes. The smaller box connects the switches. The larger box the motors, pump, solenoid and LEDs.
The Gantry from the top
The upper black cable is the motor/solenoid and LED Downlight and the lower beige cable connects the switches.
The two cable clamps (home brewed btw) hold down the cable and connect their shield to the gantry assembly.
Here the gantry from the right top side
Some little tips:
Don't forget to place the Reset-Button of the TinyG in an easy accesible location. You will need to press it many times during setup.
Its the white button on the front of the TinyG housing. I will probably add an additional "big red button". Pressing Reset up to now halts the machine immediately.
The safety power breaker is for a real emergency case and breaks the power line to the TinyG power supply.
To keep the wires in the grooves I cut a small piece of 1mm PVC plastic sheet. Bending it U shaped allowes inserting into to the groove. The piece then straightens itself and prevents the cable/wires from popping out of the groove.
Insert the cables and the vacuum tube in the toolchains BEFORE mounting the chain. Otherwise it takes a lot of time pushing and guiding the cables around the bent toolchain.
To keep the cable bundle behind the X Motor plate up high above the rear Y limit switch I added (glued) a suspension hook to hold up the bundle. Maybe the x motor plate could be extended for that purpose in future.
I used a 12 wire chainflex cable material from the gantry to the connector box and 8/12/16 pin connectors with 12/12/16 shielded cables to the TinyG.
- Liteplacer overview
- DSC04011S.jpg (96.53 KiB) Viewed 3361 times
- Right hand side view
- DSC04012S.jpg (101.75 KiB) Viewed 3361 times
- Connection boxes
- DSC04013S.jpg (101.28 KiB) Viewed 3361 times
- Gantry top view
- DSC04014S.jpg (93.31 KiB) Viewed 3361 times
The two cable clamps (home brewed btw) hold down the cable and connect their shield to the gantry assembly.
- Closeup view gantry cable distribution
- DSC04015S.jpg (105.04 KiB) Viewed 3361 times
- Gantry top right side view
- DSC04016S.jpg (116.85 KiB) Viewed 3361 times
Don't forget to place the Reset-Button of the TinyG in an easy accesible location. You will need to press it many times during setup.
Its the white button on the front of the TinyG housing. I will probably add an additional "big red button". Pressing Reset up to now halts the machine immediately.
The safety power breaker is for a real emergency case and breaks the power line to the TinyG power supply.
To keep the wires in the grooves I cut a small piece of 1mm PVC plastic sheet. Bending it U shaped allowes inserting into to the groove. The piece then straightens itself and prevents the cable/wires from popping out of the groove.
Insert the cables and the vacuum tube in the toolchains BEFORE mounting the chain. Otherwise it takes a lot of time pushing and guiding the cables around the bent toolchain.
To keep the cable bundle behind the X Motor plate up high above the rear Y limit switch I added (glued) a suspension hook to hold up the bundle. Maybe the x motor plate could be extended for that purpose in future.