servo amp signal wire

[Karl_T]

My AMC analog servo amps are twenty four feet from my galil board. Each of the four servos will have only four conductors, a pair for signal voltage and another for servo fault.

I'm going to have to buy this brand new. I about had a cow when I seen how high special wire prices are. Some questions with an eye on cost.

Does this need to be sheilded cable?
Do the pairs need to be twisted?
Can i run signals to more than one amp in the same cable?
How small can I go with conductor wire size?

Any particular product offers you know about would be appreciated.

Karl

[Al_The_Man]

Personally I would run shielded, 20~24g minimum.
DigiKey is about $1.00/ft for 100ft 4 cond shielded.
Check to see if you have a cable supplier in your area such as Texcan or Anixter.
Prices have soared in the last few years, probabally the price of copper?
Is there a reason they need to be 24ft from the controller? The amp to motor cable is less prone to EMI and can be TEW twisted.
Al.

[mike_Kilroy]

Al got the important questions answered. In addition you asked if you can run more than 1 amp in 1 cable: sure - again as long as they are individually shielded pairs they should not interact. and twisting i9nside the shield helps keep even more noise out, but for sig & fault, I'd say no, twisted is not also required but wouldn't hurt - dont get stuck on that when you pick wire from digikey. Al also hit good point - most common is galil & amc in same cabinet close to each other and make the motor cables 24 ft long instead, because the connections between control and drive is more noise prone than leads to motors.