Basic Wiring Question

[waynep]

1. Is 20ga awg adequate for running drivers, vfd, etc. Simple question I know
   

 

[segoman-designs]

I'm using a 24ga cat 5E shielded for the control cables on my clearpath servos. The power cables (72volt) will be a 14/16 ga. Not sure of your specific devices,but they should have a PDF online at their site that breaks it all down.

 

[breezy]

@waynep

Your VFD - spindle wiring should be shielded 4 core cable about 14 ga. The shield should earthed at the VFD end only. Also check that the earth pin on the spindle is connected to the body of the spindle. There are some spindles out there that are not earthed correctly.

Regards,

Arie.

 

[waynep]

Thanks, I had wired the spindle to vfd using 20awg. Maybe I'll rethink that decision

 

[waynep]

Sego, I purchased nema 34 closed loop motors from China. They have the cabling to run between motors and drivers. I just want to make sure I don't under supply power from devices to Masso controller.

 

[waynep]

2nd Question Am I over simplifying the control box setup or is this all the pieces/wiring needed for phase one?

 

[cncnutz]

Hi waynap

The connection between Masso and the stepper motor drivers are logic levels so the cable does not require need to be large.

The wires between the steppers and the motors are a different matter and need to be rated to match the motors.

With your Stage 1 control box I would personally add homing switches as Masso works so much better with homing switches installed.

Cheers

Peter

 

[waynep]

Thank you Peter, just looked at the video on YouTube for homing switches but there is no mention of limit switches. Are they not neccessary with Masso?

 

[segoman-designs]

X2 on the limit switch question, I started the build prior to finding about MASSO and put one on each corner and both ends of the gantry..

 

[breezy]

When you setup axis in MASSO you provide the length of each axis, this creates soft limits that MASSO uses to calculate whether the commanded move will result in an excursion beyond the physical limits of your machine. But you can still run the machine past these limits if you have F3 in continuous jog mode, so hard limit switches will force you to re-home the machine if they are tripped.

I have limit switches on both ends of X&Y axis because I was homing the machine to the right back corner and setting X0 & Y0 to the left front corner, but have since changed homing to LF corner. I find using MDI quicker to move about the table than jog buttons/keys, so if I command a move that exceeds the soft limits an alarm is thrown and there is NO movement. A valid command resets the soft limit alarm. I haven't hit the hard limits since.

Regards,

Arie.

 

[cncnutz]

Have you seen this video I made last weekend? It mentions Hard limit switches.

Cheers

Peter

 

[segoman-designs]

Peter

Great video, it helps a lot. I did a spring loaded over shot so my switches would not get totaled by a 350 LB gantry not stopping on a dime. I think a proximity type switch would probably be better suited for the operation but these are mounted so we will give them a shot (pun intended)

 

[waynep]

Thanks all for the replies. I have limit switches so I will set them up and use them for homing when I get to the build.

 

[segoman-designs]

@masso-support

Peter,

Thanks for the great video it made setting up homing and soft limits easy, however when I went to set up hard limits I see no drop down on the menu stating " X,Y or Z Hard Limit". This is the same with or without the toggle "disable hard limit" in general settings checked or unchecked. What am I not seeing here?

G3 5765 V3.45

Thanks

 

[cncnutz]

@segoman-designs

Hard limits use the homing switches. There is no dedicated hard limit inputs.

Cheers Peter