Most elegant way to wire duel extruder?

[dmo]

I'm adding a new Chimera/Cyclops duel extruder and am trying to figure out the best way to run the wires. I'm guessing there's no way to squeeze them through the tower.

[Nylocke]

If you rewire the towers you should be able to fit everything. I'm using CAT5e cable (24 gauge) that I got from home depot to do most things (they are already bundled in pairs to minimize crosstalk). I have the endstop and thermistor wires (5 pairs) running up the X tower, 2 18 gauge runs going up the Y tower (if you found some with thinner sleeving you could also run the 26 or 28 gauge wire from the layer/hotend fans) and then 6 pairs for the motors and two fans up the Z tower.

[dmo]

Thanks, you always have good ideas. Is there a concerned about using a solid core wire for the thermistors with all of the movement in the hotend? Could I use the cat6 for the stoppers and perhaps a 28-30 gauge stranded wire for the thermistors? Also what is a good source for quality wire? I miss the days you could go to a store and buy quality wire. LOL

[Xenocrates]

Thanks, you always have good ideas. Is there a concerned about using a solid core wire for the thermistors with all of the movement in the hotend? Could I use the cat6 for the stoppers and perhaps a 28-30 gauge stranded wire for the thermistors? Also what is a good source for quality wire? I miss the days you could go to a store and buy quality wire. LOL

Most cat 5/6 I've encountered is stranded rather than solid core, so it should do OK. It's also often marked on larger cables, such as the 25-50 foot ones I end up buying most of the time (I'm too cheap to buy a carton of cat 6, especially when I have a carton of Cat 5, but I often want it for runs that go by noisy areas).

I find amazon has some wire, as does newegg if you go looking. Alternatively, http://www.awcwire.com/categorygroup.as ... -and-cable seems like a good place to start. Home depot often has some wire of various sizes and types on spools. I've bought 12 and 14 gauge from them in the past, but the selection isn't great, and the sorting is terrible.

[Jetguy]

I kind of went a different route when building my V2.
I used 5 conductor #20 ribbon cables made for RGBW LED strands, and ran the flat ribbon cable up the side slots of the extrusion verticals pulled tight and behind the T-nuts. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NANLXNC

I used one 5 conductor wire for the endstops (Black and Red were GND and 5V(or 3.3V in my RADDS system), then White, Blue, and Green were the sense return lines for the endstops). I wired all endstops in 3 wire config for positive assertion of both states to prevent EMI/RFI from floating Normally Open switch style connections. I'm using RADDS with an Arduino Due, running Repetier firmware.

I too had some stranded #20 4 wire signal cable (used in alarm sytems) that I used specifically for the extruder stepper motor that ran down the center hole of the extrusion.

For the extruder heaters, fans, and thermistor, I ran another 5 wire #20 flat ribbon cable and a 2 wire #20 cable together up the other tower and down to the head terminated in 5.08mm spacing bard style screw terminals soldered with heatshrink.
On that one, I use white/blue for thermistor, then the main single separate 2 wire #20 was for the heater, then the Red of the 5 wire was for fans. That leaves black and green as returns for a hotend and a print cooling blower fan. This allows you to run 24v heater and 12V fans, or just not have a drop in fan speed when the heater kicks in.

Finally, for top mounted LEDS, I ran 2 wire #20 down the center hole of a open extrusion for constant on 12V LED strips.

The reason for all this is:
#1, I was scratch building a custom V2 and didn't have a kit wiring
#2 The 5 wire ribbon and my standardization of color schemes and functions across my printers that I custom build keeps wiring tidy and organized.
#3, by not ramming a bunch of wires down a round hole in the extrusion, I'm less likely to cut the insulation and short, but also, I gain some EMI/RFI immunity in how I placed signals and known EMI producing wires. Specifically, the extruder stepper is both a twisted 4 pair, but also inside the central bore of aluminum. No other signal wires (endstop or thermistor) are in that tower, let alone running next to the stepper wires.
This methods made for a faster build, less soldering and points of failure, and a cleaner easier look.
#4, the wires to the hotend are contiguous all the way from the mainboard to the hotend with no splices or solder joints. The routing is clean and sharp bend free, the exposed loop down to the hotend is covered in black mesh which helps limit bend radius and looks sharp.
#5 the screw terminal termination at the hotend makes swaps, repairs, testing, and just assembly a joy rather than a nightmare. It's might not be the plug and play of the Eris, but it's not that far off either.

X tower
5 wire cable for endstops run down the side.
Center hole is open for another wire run should I need it.

Y tower
Side is both a 5 wire and a 2 wire in the V of the side where the rollers go. This is the contiguous wire run to the hotend. Has thermistor, 2 fans, extruder heater. If you wanted to be extra slick, I could use the heater power and then use the second red for a constant on source (say LEDs strips on the effector). As is, the hotend fan is temp controlled in repetier. The instant the heater turns on, it's on and stays on until the hotend is below 50C. As such, I wired in LEDS in parallel to the fan, such that the LEDS are effectively on the instant you call for heat, and don't turn off until well after a print finished and the head cooled to less than 50C.
Center bore of extrusion has a 2 wire #20 for 12v leds and general 12v power (say you wanted a fan on the extruder feeder motor)

Z tower
4 wire #20 for extruder stepper, terminates in screw terminals for easy motor swaps.

[Jetguy]

Sorry, should have read the title better. So for a dual extruder, I could run a 4 wire up the open center of the X tower given my wiring scheme.
It would be better (IMO) to swap and put the second 4 wire stepper up the Y tower with the hotend wires, VS stepper+ endstop wires on the X tower.
Again, my goal was to have EMI producing wires in the faraday shield of the center core of the extrusion. Then go even further and not put anything EMI near the endstops. I don't like it near the thermistor, but all things considered and routing wise of alike destination/type of my setup, I like to think I followed good practices.

[dmo]

Thanks, I took another look at my wiring. My cat 6 was solid core but not my cat 5.It looks like Amazon has some nice whirring. I'm looking at the silicon wires. The last wire I bought at Home Depot the insulation seemed brittled.
Jetguy; Your set up seems very interesting. So your ribbon cable runs on the track behind the carnage wheels? I was concerned about the wires bending so much and stripping against the aluminum when I build it.

[Jetguy]

I'll try to post pictures later tonight of that build. The key was I used a washer on the 1/4 inch screws that hold the extrusion and t-nut to ensure the capscrew didn't go through the t-nut and crush the wiring. I think it builds faster and easier than trying to chase all that wiring down the center and certainly reduces crosstalk and other issues.

[Jetguy]

Sorry for the delay in pictures. The flat ribbon style wires made for LEDs comes in 2 variants, 4 wires for normal RGB (Black, Blue, Red, Green) and then the newer style is 5 wire RGBW, (Black, Blue, Red, Green, White) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MHQLMTS

[dmo]

Thanks for sharing the photos. Looks like a very nice setup.