What are you guys using for wiring

[gun_maker]

I am still in the planning stages and I was wondering what you guys are using to wire up your motors. If you could give me places to look and part numbers that would be great. Also what connectors are you using from the controller box and on the motors themselves. Thank for any help Josh

[daedalus]

im using molex connectors and the same guage wire that the motors had to begin with. Im running everything single-core at the moment, as i couldnt find multicore with the right number of wires at a reasonable price.

I cant remember the type of connector, but its on molex's webpage, xl-150 or something, its ip rated and splashproof. Also check out automotive connectors at farnell and rs, quite a few of them are designed for dirty / damp environments, and some arent that expensive.

I have igus chain so everything goes through that anyway.

[krt9751]

the best thing i found for connectors is soldering with heat shrink covering it then it doesn't look like a snake swallowing a rat if you do have to change anything it's easy to cut and redo i've tried automotive connectors for the most part they worked pretty good but had some come apart and couldn't tell until i started pulling them apart

[gun_maker]

I looked for some of the IGUS Echain and wow that is expensive just to house some wires. I like the ideal behind it but just a little to rich for my pocketbook right now. I was thinking of soldering the motor end but I didn't know what to use in the control box. Basically I'm trying to figure if it is cheaper or more efficient to just buy the plug and play kit or make my own wires. I should probably look around his website a little more and find out what gauge wire is coming off the wire and how many leads I need. I'm pretty sure I need 4.

[daedalus]

the reason i have sockets instead of soldering directly is that i have spare motors, and preassembled spare cables, so if and when something goes wrong, i can just swap out the wire / motor in question, and get on with what im doing. If you dont have any spare parts then you might as well solder, as it will take you some considerable time to get a replacement motor, so im guessing the time it takes to solder in the new one will be trivial in comparison.

The molex connectors i use are about $20 a plug/socket, so way out of my price range, but i had some samples left over from another project, so used them.

As for the echain, well i got mine at a better price, free. But it does come up on ebay quite regularly, usually at a reasonable cost.