Good afternoon, Bill,
No, I didn't have a problem in the past, and I previously did not ground the shield at the spindle end. Nevertheless, I elected to ground the shield this time around. If I get a noise problem, it's easy enough to clip the shielding back and tape it over. I don't anticipate a problem.
As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, I previously wrapped the cable around a ferrite core inside the VFD box, which isn't something you see discussed much. I picked the suggestion up in a post, quite by accident, when reading about someone having problems with noise. Knowing that it was unlikely to cause problems, I decided to give it a shot. Did the core prevent noise in a cable grounded at only one end? I have no idea. I'll be using again, though. I don't think it can hurt anything, and as long as I have it, I might as well use it.
I don't want to leave the impression that I'm obsessing over the shield grounding. I'm not. If I'm obsessive about anything, it's noise in general. It's because I've read so much about people who had problems with it. That was/is the last thing I want to deal with. By all accounts it can be a bear to diagnose, and I don't pretend to be a good diagnostician. Anyway, It was just something I wanted to take care of as long as I was replacing the cable anyway. I went with the Igus CF6, because it is more flexible than the Igus cable I had been using. I've also engaged in the discussion for general reference for others who might be interested. I used to be one of those lurkers who read a lot and contributed little. Given the number of folks who have viewed this thread, but remained silent, there are lot of them out there. Not criticizing, but recognizing how it is. Even though I am not an expert in electrical devices, I can share what has worked for me. If all this helps just one person, I'm happy. At the end of the day, my cable replacement was but one step in the build process. Nothing more.
I acknowledge and agree with your comments about the pros being all over the place on how grounding should all be done, and how confusing it can be. Makes you think that whatever you do, it will all work out. Unfortunately, we know from all the people with noise problems that not all of the solutions are necessarily the best, or even work. Faced with conflicting choices you are left with having to pick one that seems reasonable and try it. That's what I've done. So far, so good.
I'll be posting some pics of my plug and the ferrite core I used a little later on, in case anyone is interested. I think I mentioned before that my connector is made for a larger cable, so I had to make some modifications to get what I wanted. I really didn't want to deal with opening up the spindle again and changing connectors - and spending even more money.
Next up: I'll be adjusting my sensors and sensor flags. Not a big deal, but part of the process. IMO, sensor flag mounting was a weakness in the Saturn 2 design, because they had virtually no adjustability. Since I am using extrusions, it was easy to make the flags adjustable. It is going to a little tricky, though. The flags sit under the gantry interface plates when the sensor activates. Getting under the interface plates to adjust them may prove interesting. We'll see.
Gary