4 conductor wire for my CNC Machine

[MagTDK]

I need to buy some 4 conductor stranded 22 AWG wire for my CNC machine to hook up the motors to the xylotex stepper board (as recommended by their website). I was looking to buy it at McMaster-Carr because of their fast shipping but I am having a problem finding it on their website. Otherwise I can find about every other kind of wire. Anyone know if they carry it and if so what's the part number I should look up.

Thanks

[NC Cams]

Sure

Belden brand, MAKE SURE WHATEVER YOU BUY IS SHIELDED

Digikey or Mouser.

[BobWarfield]

Try also Action Electronics and Ajax CNC for shielded multi-conductor cable.

Best,

BW

[Rance]

Mag,

I've picked up some nice 4-conductor (& 8-conductor) wire in the past from construction sites. They use it for installing speakers etc. i new houses(higher-end). I believe it is shielded too. Best of all, it's free. Ask before just taking from a dumpster though.

[jeffs555]

At distributors like Digikey and Mouser you will have to buy it on 100ft rolls. Here is one by the foot. http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...UM_CABLE_.html

[NC Cams]

CAREFUL: Some of the electronic distributors have minimum purchase (IE $50 to $100) requirements and I've even seen minimum line items (IE: buy 1 foot or 100 foot of wire, costs the "min line item price")

Some of the Digikey & Mouser stuff is sold in 10 and 25 foot lengths it I recall.

[mcarvey]

If you can wait a few more days to get it you may try Emtel Electronics on Ebay.
I got 250' of cable from them and was very happy with the cable and the shipping time.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cable-22-AWG-4-C...QQcmdZViewItem

-Matt

[MagTDK]

Thanks for the web site links.

[Revtech]

Stranded Cat 5-E worked great just doubled up on the wires IE.. brown and brown with white used as one. it's shielded and i was able to find stranded. paid $7.00 off ebay for 30 feet. it was perfect lenth. Even comes in colors. I purchase the molex conectors(I found them at a website called mouser electronics for just over 6 dollars for all of them.) used a little shrink tubing and soldered the ends for the driver board.
Rev

[BobWarfield]

There's a nice tutorial on making up CAT-5 cables here:

http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.aspx

Note that it isn't really shielded, it just has twisted pairs, which is almost as good. The premise behind the lack of outer shielding is that signals (positive through one and ground through the other) traveling through the twisted pair will reject noise. They don't reject it as a copper foil or braided sheath does but it absorbs the noise then since the noise is introduced into positive and ground at the same time, each travelling opposite directions, they cancel each other out. This is what's referred to as Common Mode Noise Rejection (CMNR). The important thing here is that you have 4 twisted pairs, and you need to pair up the positive and negative portions for max noise reduction so they can cancel each other out.

I would think they would be convenient to use as encoder cables, or as the cables for home and limit switches. Not sure their power handling capability is there to carry the current for the motors.

Best,

BW

[js11110]

I bought the Xylotex plug and play system, but had to make 2 of my wires a little longer to be able to run them through my cable carriers. I questioned Jeff from Xylotex on the type of wire and was told Home Depot carries it. Went there, and lo and behold there it was.

[MagTDK]

js11110,

Which type of wire did Jeff from xylotex recommend from Home Depot?