I am at a similar stage, but have built the non-electronics already.
I have spent a week reading up on how wire up the electronics, and here is what I have found:
1) The power cable from wall to power supply should be 18 AWG. Use an extra computer power cable and cut off the male end so you can tin the wires and plug into power supply (PS).
2) For the wires from PS to RAMPS board,and for PS to heated bed, use 18 AWG. I just got another power cord and used portions of it. Strip primary insulation when you only need 2 wires.
Doesn't everyone have old cables like this around? Ask your IT guy if not.
3) for the wires on everything else, 22 AWG is recommended. That is easily obtained from RG6 com cable if you have it (I don't). I was going to buy some but then realized the typical Cat 5 network cable has 8 24 AWG wires in it. 24 awg is .25mm area, and 24 awg is .30 mm area. You only need 4 wires for steppers, so pair up the wires in the cat 5 to get an equivalent above 22 awg. Its the area you care about, and .5 mm is better than .3mm for 24 awg. Again, who does not have extra cat 5 around? Ask the IT guy for some if no one. You only need 4 feet or so. Do check that its stranded wire. You can look through the network cable end to see, most are transparent.
So two power cords and 4 feet of cat 5, super inexpensive.
Cables to end stops and thermistors are fine with 24 awg. I heard people recommending even phone wires as these are low current.
Once we have the wire, we need to create the cables. For wire going to steppers, use the existing cat 5 insulation as you need 4 wires (pair up the 8 by soldering together ends to get 4).
For the other items, strip insulation and make cables of whatever counts you need.
Get male or female connectors for hooking to the pins on boards and steppers. Other things can be directly soldered.
Since I have not made my cables yet, anyone see issues with my cat 5 idea?
I forgot, the power supply should be one of the recommended ones, which are for LED lighting it seems. I think they are 40w supplies. Don't get fancy there.
I was very surprised how scattered the cabling info was, since many reprappers are not electrical people.
I can get the parts like you did, but had a hard time figuring out the simple way to do things.
I figured things out by going to Fry's to get wire, and noticing the 22 awg was pretty thin, and that lots of things had 24 awg. Just group them up to get 22.
I left without buying anything and grabbed throwaways from my IT guy.
I'd like to see better docs on this topic. Hope this helps.
I have spent a week reading up on how wire up the electronics, and here is what I have found:
1) The power cable from wall to power supply should be 18 AWG. Use an extra computer power cable and cut off the male end so you can tin the wires and plug into power supply (PS).
2) For the wires from PS to RAMPS board,and for PS to heated bed, use 18 AWG. I just got another power cord and used portions of it. Strip primary insulation when you only need 2 wires.
Doesn't everyone have old cables like this around? Ask your IT guy if not.
3) for the wires on everything else, 22 AWG is recommended. That is easily obtained from RG6 com cable if you have it (I don't). I was going to buy some but then realized the typical Cat 5 network cable has 8 24 AWG wires in it. 24 awg is .25mm area, and 24 awg is .30 mm area. You only need 4 wires for steppers, so pair up the wires in the cat 5 to get an equivalent above 22 awg. Its the area you care about, and .5 mm is better than .3mm for 24 awg. Again, who does not have extra cat 5 around? Ask the IT guy for some if no one. You only need 4 feet or so. Do check that its stranded wire. You can look through the network cable end to see, most are transparent.
So two power cords and 4 feet of cat 5, super inexpensive.
Cables to end stops and thermistors are fine with 24 awg. I heard people recommending even phone wires as these are low current.
Once we have the wire, we need to create the cables. For wire going to steppers, use the existing cat 5 insulation as you need 4 wires (pair up the 8 by soldering together ends to get 4).
For the other items, strip insulation and make cables of whatever counts you need.
Get male or female connectors for hooking to the pins on boards and steppers. Other things can be directly soldered.
Since I have not made my cables yet, anyone see issues with my cat 5 idea?
I forgot, the power supply should be one of the recommended ones, which are for LED lighting it seems. I think they are 40w supplies. Don't get fancy there.
I was very surprised how scattered the cabling info was, since many reprappers are not electrical people.
I can get the parts like you did, but had a hard time figuring out the simple way to do things.
I figured things out by going to Fry's to get wire, and noticing the 22 awg was pretty thin, and that lots of things had 24 awg. Just group them up to get 22.
I left without buying anything and grabbed throwaways from my IT guy.
I'd like to see better docs on this topic. Hope this helps.