[TSJ]

I have access to Igus Cabletrain wire that has 4 pairs of 24AWG stranded wire with an aluminum shield plus a braided shield. I think this wire will work great for the servo encoder connections. But can another set of wires be used for the plus and another set for the minus side to drive the motor? I would strip all eight wires at the ends and combine them into one connection in the controller and the other end at the motor. The maximum length of wire to a motor would be approximately 20 feet. So in total per motor I would have one cable for the controller, one cable for the plus and one cable for the minus. I would ground the shield at one end at the controller enclosure.

When I strip the wires and roll them together they form a wire somewhere in-between the size of a 14 and 12AWG wire. The motors I plan to drive state the maximum voltage is 150VDC and maximum draw of 9 amps. Is this idea feasible or am I even in the ball park?

[Al_The_Man]

I take it you want to run one four pair for the encoder and one four pair for the motor.
I don't see any problem with that, often the motor is run un-shielded, yours would have the extra advantage.
As long as the wire insulation voltage rating was sufficient.
Al.

[TSJ]

I would run:
one 4 pair to the encoder (CUI encoder uses 5 wires so I would not use 3)
one 4 pair to the + side of the motor (8 wires)
one 4 pair to the - side of the motor (8 wires)

I found the wire in the Igus catalog, I will have to look at the specs for temperatures.

So far the only problem I can see with the wire is the outer jacket is purple. I guess I will have a classy machine!

[Al_The_Man]

Maybe a bit of overkill, but it should work, the only thing is with the motor, normally the + & - feeds are twisted tightly together, this helps eliminate the EMR by cancellation effect, but you may achieve the same thing by shielding.
Al.

[springlakecnc]

Hi,
I am not a real expert on 5 wire encoders, (or any encoder) 5v, 0v, A, b, Ground, right? Read the specks on that encoder, (or call the salesperson) but i think they are limited to cable length, something like 6' or 10', i don't know, and you are talking 20'?????? I think you need 5v, 0v, A, A-, B, B-, and Ground, to go 20'. Also, I don't know what kind of drives you are using, but Gecko has limited amperage for the encoder, unless you use external power supplies, so if you have Geckos and not US digital encoders, you better re-read the Geckos limitations and the amperage draw of your encoders. If you have a pile of that wire, what you said should work, make 1 big wire out of a bunch of small ones.
Good Luck,
Buck