Here's the latest on my project. I ordered 4 of the Teknic M-3422 motors and 5 Teknic SSt-1500-UCX drives (drive from 2 different eBay vendors). All have arrived and they all appear, visually, to be in good condition. I also ordered the Ethernet SmoothStepper and a fairly recently discovered BOB designed specifically for ESS, called MachBob2 (MB2) that's made in Thailand. The ESS website has a BOB vendors page where this product is linked (
MB2 ESS ethernet smooth stepper BOB breakout out board [MB2]). It's advertised with the following features: 6 Axis Line Driver; I/O that utilizes all 3 ports of the ESS; OSSD safety output; Status LEDs for all signals; Requires a single 24V power supply. Having received the ESS and MB2 I will say I'm pleased with having selected these two items so far. I've also selected (but haven't ordered as yet) a 73VDC bulk linear power supply from Antek and a couple of smaller PSUs from jameco.com for 5V and 24V (from 1 PSU) and 12V from another smaller yet PSU to power everything in the CNC motion control enclosure. So, theoretically I have all the electronics and motors bought or selected, with the main exception of the motor power and encoder cabling for connecting the motion control components to the motors.
I'm now going through the process of determining what type(s) of cabling I'll use. The Teknic SSt drive manual references Belden and Olflex cable material, which I'm sure are good, but they're also fairly expensive. i contacted one company that resells Teknic motors and drives and they provided a quote for 4 cables (3-each 28ft and 1-each 20ft) complete for $518 plus shipping. I was a little stunned at that price until I discovered how much the Teknic recommended cable (just raw cable on a spool or cut to length with no connectors) costs. At that point I decided to see if it would be possible for me to acquire the cable and connectors needed and make my own and save some money. So here's what I've found so far.
I've found some Belden equivalent (Carol brand) cable that I'll likely use for the motor power cabling and I'm looking into the possibility/feasibility of using shielded Cat 5e network cable for the motor encoder and signaling cables. Using the Belden equivalent cables, I've determined I can make a single cable for power and one for the encoder for each motor that could plug directly into the Molex connector on the motor pigtail and run them direct to the Teknic servo drive motor connector, which would make for an easier cable build. If I use Cat 5e then I'll still need to use a Molex connector at the motor end and convert the encoder/signal wiring to an RJ45 connection type at the motor for 2-each Cat 5e cables that then could terminate at RJ45 inline couplers mounted in a keystone wall plate and passed through to the Teknic motor connector using its mating Molex connector. Costs, time and feasibility are the factors I'm working through now as to which cabling type I'll use.
I'll update this again once I have more to report.