[rnm85]

I'm a total novice at anything electrical. I took my psu and gecko driver to the local electrical store with the hope they would tell me what wire I would need to wire the driver to the PSU.

They looked at me strangely and said they had no idea. Showed me the endless racks of different wire they had for different things which didn't help me at all.

Can anyone tell me what wire I need? I thought it would be pretty straight forward but it seems not!

Thanks for your help,

Rory

[Al_The_Man]

For general use hooking up P.S. drives etc, you need to ask for control or hook-up wire, single conductor stranded, I don't know what the designations are in Australia, but there is TR64 which is nice as it has thinner insulation, also TEW or THHN.
Cablek - CSA TR-64 wire
Select the gauge according to the current requirements.
Al.

[PaulRowntree]

The G540 has an internal 7A fuse, and it is limited to 50V. These are your limits; I think it is a good idea to wire to the limits with a bit of extra capacity (say, 10A at 50 V) so you don't have to rewire later. It is only a few feet of wire after all!

[brtech]

I'd suggest 16 or 18 gauge, single conductor, stranded. I'd suggest red and black. Red is positive, black is negative. It's actually hard to get a 16 gauge wire into the connector block, you will need to cut off a couple of strands. If your wire will be a couple of feet, I'd use 16. If it's a couple of inches, 18 is okay. You should be using 20 gauge from the Gecko to the motors.

Cut the insulation off the end, twist the strands together, and for the PSU, wrap around the screw clockwise (the direction the screw tightens). For the Gecko, back off the screw so you can't see it in the wire hole, push the wire in, and tighten the screw. You should not see any bare wire.

Note that if you are using 48 V you are not "low voltage" (usually, the limit is considered to be 42V). That means you should take as much care with the 48V output as you do with the 110/220 input.

[Al_The_Man]

The wire colour regulations in US and Canada is:
NFPA79.
BLACK Line and load circuits at incoming line voltage
RED AC control Circuits at less than Line voltage.
BLUE DC control circuits.
YELLOW Control circuits that remain live when local disconnect is off, (remote powered)
GREEN, GREEN/YELLOW Earth ground conductors.
WHITE or GRAY Current carrying grounded conductors, e.g. Neutral
WHITE with BLUE stripe, Grounded conductors carrying DC (DC common)
Al.

[rnm85]

Thanks for the help! I went out and managed to get some stuff that works. I got it wired up last night and everything seems to be working well.

Rory

[brtech]

Open any electronics device with a DC power supply, anything = computer, machine tool, medical device, anything.

If you see white with a blue stripe as the DC ground color, you get a gold ribbon. Most of them are black.

That color code may be a standard, but it's not a common practice in my experience.

The AC colors are pretty commonly used. Not the DC ones.

[Al_The_Man]

I generally use Blue for DC and light blue for the common, I used to get it OK in TR64, the nice thing about TR64 is the insulation is rated for 300v but is half of what TEW is, it makes a big difference when you have a large bundle of wires in a trough.
Al.

[RCaffin]

Can anyone tell me what wire I need?

First of all, 50 V is not very high voltage, so anything multi-stranded you can buy at your local hardware/electrical shop will do for insulation. Colour does not matter. In fact, I have a machine which has been wired up (by someone else!) using ordinary 10A mains cable. Bulky, but very reliable!

But there are two things which will help. The first is to buy crimp-on fittings (often called PIDG I think) for terminal blocks. These convert fine multi-strand wire into solid copper ends. Saves on damage to the fine wires. This is nice.

The other thing you must do is to DOCUMENT the wiring! A simple text file is enough, but record each connection: start, end, cable bundle (number them), colour. And print it out, fold it up, and store the printed copy in the machine. You will bless me later.

Cheers

[BanduraMaker]

The other thing you must do is to DOCUMENT the wiring! A simple text file is enough, but record each connection: start, end, cable bundle (number them), colour. And print it out, fold it up, and store the printed copy in the machine. You will bless me later.

Cheers

Another tip - I have one of those little Brother brand label makers so as I was wiring up, I made a flag with each wire's function and labeled each one.

[RCaffin]

one of those little Brother brand label makers

That's definitely very pro and luxury.
I think one can buy tubular sleeves with number printed on them too.

Cheers

[BanduraMaker]

Less than $20 and very useful in the shop!

[brtech]

Crimp terminals for the PS end is a nice touch, but only if they are crimped correctly. I think if you have no experience with them, you are better with bare wire. Just make sure the wire is twisted, no strands are sticking out, and the insulation comes right up to the terminal. On the Gecko, the terminal block is designed for bare wire.

48 V is "low" only in the sense that it's below a couple hundred volts, which is the threshold where you need better insulation. It's "high" in the safety sense. So, no need for special insulation, true, but take more care than you would for 12 V or 24V. Make sure fingers can't touch it without removing some guard, etc.

Documentation is a great idea. No need to be fancy. Just write down what you did.

There is a thread on how to get a G540 going:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...ecko_g540.html

It has some good detail on the steps you should take to bring it up