Electronics Enclosure pictures/wiring and fusing

[ahaidet]

I am working on building my electronics enclosure. I would like to see some pictures of how others have everything setup. I have found some scattered around this site and others but it might be nice to see a bunch in one place.

Also Should anything be fused inside the enclosure?
110volt to power supply?
DC voltage to motor drivers? if so how many amps?

I will post some pictures of mine which will be a combination electronics enclosure/computer stand/ frequently used tool storage. I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend.

[LUCKY13]

I know its a bit of search but looking through all the build threads will get you the most info.



As far as fussing, yes fuss the A/C side. And fusses between power supply & drivers is good also. Size/amps, all depends on what your running. Also no fusses between servo's/steppers & driver, just hard wired there.


The enclosure a few main points to go by.

One, mount your drivers so the wire feeds can be as short as possible to the power supply. DOnt daisy chain them.

Two, you need to think about when you have to tune the drivers so they will need to be so you can get to there ajustments unless it is all software controlled.


Three, BOB, addon cards such as spindle controls, MPG hookups, Smoothstepper,ect,ect need to be mounted so you can get the input hookups to the outside of your inclosure. If they use cables then mounting them so the cables/connectors going to the face of the controller are as short as possible.


Four, you need to keep power harnesses seperated from logic wires/controls.


Five, make a grounding point on the case somewhere so you can ground all parts of the electronics to one point. This is called a star grounding point and you can do a search and find a lot of info about it.

Six, always use shielded wiring for power, or logic hookups. There are probably some parts you could get buy without shielded wiring but its best to use it everywhere you can. If you do use some wiring that is not bundled and there is more than one twist them together so it will help fight off noise interferance. Wires twisted together kinda create a shield of sort.


Seven, always expect to be wanting to add on later. If its your first build yuo will learn more about what you want & need so leaving room for extra's down the road will be good.


I am sure there is other things to consider but this should be a good start on your research. The pics of my enclosure are not the way it is layed out anymore and I dont have a way to provide pics to show the changes. Maybe others will have some pics to help.


Jess

[ahaidet]

Little confused on what should be connected to star ground?

Should I connect the A/C ground to star ground then all the DC- supply sides out of the power supply then to the Motor drivers?

BOB shouldnt need connected to Star ground since its grounded to Mother board through parrallel port and motherboard is grounded to power supply and then to the earth ground on plug. Correct?

Does that sound right?

[Al_The_Man]

The AC or service ground should be connected to the star point, it also pays to take a ground wire from the PC case to this point, although the MB is grounded through the P.C. power supply common.
Grounding power supply commons can be done dependent on whether the equipment allows it.
Many manufacturers of the different components that make up a system will stress isolation, in the most part because they cannot guarantee the nature of other equipment you are hooking in to so often it is a precautionary measure on their part to protect any come back on them.
For that reason when it is carried out it has to be appraised on an individual basis.
Al.
Reference:
http://www.automation.siemens.com/do.../emv_r.pdf?p=1

[RPCElectronics]

I have a ton of pictures of my control box:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1138090...lCNCConversion

[lsces]

4 Channel Stepper Motor Controller
240V build, but 110 is identical, has 2 switched mains sockets and 4 stepper channels. I WILL get around to adding a circuit diagram, and some more notes on the bits used ...

[ahaidet]

Got a lot completed on my control cabinet this weekend. Turned out pretty nice. I need to make up some motor wires and some jumpers from break out board to motor drivers for the wiring to be complete. Then I need to finish the front panel which will hold tooling. I need to make shelves and holders that will attach to the front board for easy access to my most used tools (end mill holders, drill chucks, etc..)

This week hopefully I can get to work machining my motor mounts and maybe in a week or so it will be 2-axis converted.

See pics
https://picasaweb.google.com/1024307...CNCConversion#

The monitor is not in its final resting place. I already had the monitor mounted to that bracket for something else. It was convenient to reuse it for now. I will eventually mount the monitor to the machine enclosure I plan on building once the machine is fully converted.

[hoss2006]

Got a lot completed on my control cabinet this weekend. Turned out pretty nice. I need to make up some motor wires and some jumpers from break out board to motor drivers for the wiring to be complete. Then I need to finish the front panel which will hold tooling. I need to make shelves and holders that will attach to the front board for easy access to my most used tools (end mill holders, drill chucks, etc..)

This week hopefully I can get to work machining my motor mounts and maybe in a week or so it will be 2-axis converted.

See pics
https://picasaweb.google.com/1024307...CNCConversion#

The monitor is not in its final resting place. I already had the monitor mounted to that bracket for something else. It was convenient to reuse it for now. I will eventually mount the monitor to the machine enclosure I plan on building once the machine is fully converted.

I was gonna say you must be a basketball player to see that monitor.
Excellent work, very nicely put together.
Hoss

[ahaidet]

I was gonna say you must be a basketball player to see that monitor.
Excellent work, very nicely put together.
Hoss

Thanks Hoss! Now its time to start using your plans to machine the motor brackets.


I figured I better put a disclaimer about the monitor in there. I showed it to a friend of mine (without mentioning the monitors reused orgin and that it was only temporary) and he thought I was crazy for having it that high or that the machine was that much smaller than it really is.