Cat5e cable for steppers?

[phantomcow2]

I have an upcoming project using little 17 frame motors. I just finished up some home networking, and was wondering if the excess 20ft could be cut to be used as an extension to the leads of my stepper motors. That way, it's all enclosed and shielded.

[stevec]

I used cat wiring on my homemade build (JGRO Style) using 80oz steppers and it seems to work fine!

[veeguy]

Unless your NEMA size 17 motors are incredibly powerful, watt sucking mega motors, I think you will be alright.

I ran small stepper motor (actually a little NEMA 23 size) system using CAT-5 for cabling. The entire available power from the supply was 400 milliamps at 12 volts, and this was to supply 2 motors in an XY mechanism. These were 70 oz. in. rated "bargain bin" motors I bought at a Hamfest.

The CAT-5 cable I used was Belden brand, so it was a higher quality than you might see from generic CAT-5 cable. If I remember right, the individual wires were about 22 gauge solid conductor.

Some of the cheaper generic wire has 26 gauge (maybe even smaller!) wire, either stranded or solid. I would be a little less confident of these cable's current carrying capacity than a good name brand or better generic cables.

Lacking the proper connectors, I soldered the wires directly to the input pins of the motor. This probabally carried more current than a plug and pin connector.

To be totally sure I would do the following:

1.- Measure the actual wire you are going to use for conductor size.

2.- Look up the current carrying capacity of this size wire.

3.- Measure the motor's maximum individual coil current draw.

4.- Do the math, using your supply voltage in the equations.

To be 100% sure, don't allow the motor's wires current carrying capacity exceed the rated maximum coil current.

All that said, if it was me, I'd just do it and watch for overheating. Feel the wires, see if they heat up at all.

veeguy

[cschmidt]

One other thing to watch for, most cat 5 cable used for house wiring is solid core so you might not want to use it if there would be a lot of flexing.

[phantomcow2]

Originally Posted by cschmidt One other thing to watch for, most cat 5 cable used for house wiring is solid core so you might not want to use it if there would be a lot of flexing.

The stuff I have got is from a patch cable, so it is not solid.
I actually decided to buy shielded, 6 conductor cable. A 50ft roll of the stuff. This is 22 awg, so I can use it for all my motors.

[gbestwick]

Another thing to look out for is to ensure that you use the twists correctly. Unlike regular cable cat-5 wires are twisted around each other for RF/Crosstalk reduction. If you are using a 5/6 wire set up, you may consider using every Stripe as a "power" line, or something of the sorts.

And yes, if its solid core, just remember that you can only have it in a non-moving application or you *will* have failure sooner rather than later.

Cheers