Hey All,
I’ve recently gotten my x-carve all set up and have run a few test cuts, everything is fine at this point.
What I was wondering about is the length of the wires that connect the micro controller to the motors. I’d like to keep the power supply and controller away from the carver itself as I don’t have any dust collection set up at this time. Would having a run of wire of 30’ or so (so that I can keep the psu/controller near my desktop) pose any issues?
Thanks!
I am not sure on the engineering aspects but I would think the signal would degrade pretty bad over about 4 x the normal length most of us use. It may be something you can just turn the Potentiometers up to shoot a stronger signal but it would probably have to be tested with the multimeter. May want to check with Inventables directly on this kind of question.
As already mentioned, a 400% increase in the normal length of wires would probably be bad.
Your better off with a longer USB cable. Transmitting data is much easier over longer wires than transmitting power.
Plus, where is your emergency stop going to be? 30’ feet away back at your Desktop?
Longer run? Bigger wire. If you want to dish out the cash, get some 4 conductor 14 gauge cable and you can run it to the machine no problem. Then solder and heat shrink it back to 18 before you get into the cable tray to keep those buggers from binding. Remember, larger wire is stiffer wire.
[quote=“JeremyJohnstone, post:3, topic:25636”]
Your better off with a longer USB cable.
[/quote]Sorry but that’s not correct. The spec calls for a maximum of 16 feet and 5 inches. Any longer than that and issues will start to occur. A repeater could be used, but those have been known to cause their own issues. They would be better to simply increase the gauge of the wire used, as Nathan has mentioned.
