Motor wire connections

Would I have issues if I were to connect the wires (coming from the stepper drives) to the motors using a terminal block at/near the motor?

I am in the process of upgrading the wire from my steppers to my motors. The motors I have came with 25' 4C tails on them. The four conductors in the cable were crimp spliced together on then covered in one heat shrink.

Would it be ok to take the 'raw' wires coming from the motor, land them on a terminal block, and then land the larger homerun cable at that same block?

Thanks.

I don't think so. I work with 3 machines that are set up that way.

Todd Zuercher wrote: I don't think so. I work with 3 machines that are set up that way.

Is there anything special about the terminal blocks on the machines you use? Are they enclosed? Just curious.

Thanks!

Nope, nothing special, just a row of screw terminals in a plastic junction box.

I used GX16 aviation microphone connectors so the motor could be removed easily. On some motors, I used a small piece of aluminium angle secured with the motor mounting bolts to hold the panel mount socket.

rodw wrote: I used GX16 aviation microphone connectors so the motor could be removed easily. On some motors, I used a small piece of aluminium angle secured with the motor mounting bolts to hold the panel mount socket.

Where the wires come into the socket, mounted on the angle, did you use heat shrink?

Yes, sent me nuts doing that! I think I shrink wrapped each wire, then put a large piece around the whole cable. In some exposed areas, I covered the bare motor wires with some of that nylon mesh cable cover.

Also, don't connect the cable shield to anything at the motor end.

It was a bit extreme possibly, but at the control box end, I used 5 pin connectors which allowed the shield to be passed inside the control box. I used the same type of cable inside the control box. This let me connect the shield to frame ground (the case) right at the stepper controller. This was pretty handy when I upgraded to the Lam drivers which had a connector for the cable shield.

At the controller, I added a normal spade connector to the cable shield , folded it back and secured it with shrinkwrap for a nice neat, easy to work with finish

I have these modular plugs left over from a traffic signal project. Would these work, one on each side of the gantry, two at the Z?

Todd Zuercher wrote: Nope, nothing special, just a row of screw terminals in a plastic junction box.

Same here.