Found a long lost kit, now what?

[judleroy]

Sounds like you might be better off (and safer) spending 50-100$ at keling and get a power supply you don't need to wire yourself. Lol.
Judleroy

[c131fr]

Heh. Yeah. Well, I got it. 24VDC with no smoke, no popped breakers, no scary noises, and I had the TV, computer, and ceiling fan all on. Hey, I learn by doing (and sometimes failing), and I learned a lot so far. Now to hook up the capacitor and shock myself to death. I've got a 1.5k 5 watt resister between the terminals per the instructions. After that, it's all easy. lol /knock on wood

[Bubba]

Congrats on making progress! :})

Learning by doing is the best way. Shame I or somebody else can't be there looking over your shoulder only to stop you if your doing something bad!
Hang in there. This is the way we all learn.

[c131fr]

Thank you sir. I'm now trying to find some 6 pin connectors so I can wire the connections to the motors. I figured this whole project would only take me a few days. Wrong...

[Bubba]

Why 6 pin connectors? If your thinking of putting the power lines of the geckos and the encoder lines in the same plug, I highly recommend against that! You want to keep the encoder lines and the power lines separate because of possible cross talk (noise) .

[c131fr]

Hmm. The instuctions say to use the 6 pin connector- even gives the Mouser part number. They are expensive from Mouser, so I thought I'd try looking around. Maybe not now. lol The cable I was going to get is shielded, but maybe I'll get 4 conductor shielded wire for the encoder and then just zip tie a regular 2 conductor lamp cord to it for the motors. How about that plan?

[Bubba]

I keep my power wires WELL separated from the encoder wires.
And in the control box, encoder wires and power wires are not run parallel to each other. And when they have to cross, it is done as close as possible to 90°

[c131fr]

My controller box is almost finished. I was about to install some connectors when I noticed that several commercially available servo controllers use Cat 5 cable (with presumably only a few of the wires). Since Cat 5 is 24 gauge, and my instructions say to use 22 gauge, I'm wondering if this is a good idea. It would certainly be easier- I have a cat 5 wiring tool in my toolbox. Any thoughts?

[bobsch]

My controller box is almost finished. I was about to install some connectors when I noticed that several commercially available servo controllers use Cat 5 cable (with presumably only a few of the wires). Since Cat 5 is 24 gauge, and my instructions say to use 22 gauge, I'm wondering if this is a good idea. It would certainly be easier- I have a cat 5 wiring tool in my toolbox. Any thoughts?

Most Cat5 uses solid conductors, not a good idea for cables that will be flexed.

[Harry_Y]

Most Cat5 uses solid conductors, not a good idea for cables that will be flexed.

I would go with heavier gauge as well

[c131fr]

Ok. I have shielded 4 condutor wire that's stranded and 22 gauge, but I just thought it wuold be easier to use the cat 5 connector. I wonder if I could stuff the 22 gauge wire into the connector. lol

[Bubba]

I used db9 connectors for my encoder lines!