How can you improve this wiring ?

[panchovilla]

Not mine but a router being sold.
I'm a noob and am not crazy about the antennas .

[kb58]

Does it work as-shown?

If you're buying it, see this video: https://youtu.be/XsI71n6nt5g?si=V9oUjbDgaynepTbC

[ShawnM]

Several things jump out at me right away:

- none of the drive signal wires are shielded
- the analog signal for the vfd is not shielded
- those stepper drives are to be wired to the DB25 and not the headers, this will cause problems soon enough
- there’s high voltage, low voltage and signal wires running all over each other
- all the drive signal voltage is daisy chained together and should be home run like the drive power
- there’s a bulkhead connector on the Acorn Ethernet cable

All of which are bad practice when wiring a control cabinet. The last of which will certainly cause communication errors between the Acorn and the PC. And the drives wired to the headers will soon be missing steps or stop working all together.

What I find amusing is that some people use all these crazy panel mount connectors to run cables through the box, which will add another failure point, and you’ll never disconnect the box from the machine for any reason. You can’t troubleshoot anything with the box disconnected. Why would you want to disconnect it?

[kb58]

... What I find amusing is that some people use all these crazy panel mount connectors to run cables through the box, which will add another failure point, and you’ll never disconnect the box from the machine for any reason. You can’t troubleshoot anything with the box disconnected. Why would you want to disconnect it?

I mostly agree, but when problems arise, the issue is more likely to be located inside the box. Being able to disconnect it and troubleshoot on the bench is very convenient. Any complicated control system - like aircraft and cars - are all based upon modular units that can be tested before and after installation. I get your point though; my control box closely resembles Clough42's, but I used pass-through ports for most cables to allow them to connect directly to destinations. In my case, the reason wasn't reliability, but time, expense, and complication.

[suntravel]

I also do not use connectors for the box, expensive and failure prone...

Uwe

[ShawnM]

I also do not use connectors for the box, expensive and failure prone...

Uwe

Exactly, I worry more about the failure points that one adds when adding all those connectors.

I mostly agree, but when problems arise, the issue is more likely to be located inside the box. Being able to disconnect it and troubleshoot on the bench is very convenient. Any complicated control system - like aircraft and cars - are all based upon modular units that can be tested before and after installation. I get your point though; my control box closely resembles Clough42's, but I used pass-through ports for most cables to allow them to connect directly to destinations. In my case, the reason wasn't reliability, but time, expense, and complication.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong but I fail to see how someone can trouble shoot the control box when it's not hooked up to anything, namely power and the CNC machine. Everyone has their own way I guess.

I also own a fairly modern 2007 aircraft and nothing is modular in my instrument panel. The 10" glass panels and the COM radio can be removed for "service or repair" but I cannot trouble shoot anything when they are removed as nothing will power up with the glass panels removed.

To each his own I guess.