Dual Y gantry CNC router slowly getting out of square

[ShawnM]

I've even seen CAT6 bulk wire where each twisted pair was foil wrapped then all four pairs wrapped again with a drain wire. You can even buy the stuff at Home Depot.

But I just read back a little and you are using the Teknic cables and these are Clearpath motors. I was suggesting CAT5 or 6 for standard stepper drives.

I see you started another thread/topic about shielded cables, it would be more helpful if you keep all your questions in one thread/topic for your build so others can follow along.

[tblough]

Regardless if I have braid and a drain wire, or just braid, I always terminate them by soldering on a pigtail to the shield or shield+drain and heat shrink the connection. Sometimes I'll just comb out the braid, twist it and cover with heatshrink for smaller cables IF they have a high quality, dense braid.

Notice the larger yellow wires on the MPG/Panel/Probe connectors (soldered connection is bent back over the jacket and is the lump under the heatshrink) and the two green/yellow wires on the orange VFD cable. The VFD cable has a shielded twisted triplet for 3-phase power, and two separate individually shielded twisted pairs. One for winding over-temp sensors, and the other for fan power. Hence the multiple shield wires.

[ryanjg11]

Tom, where are you terminating the shield/drain in the picture above? I can't quite see.

[ShawnM]

They should all be grounded to a common buss bar in the cabinet like in the pic below.

[tblough]

Tom, where are you terminating the shield/drain in the picture above? I can't quite see.

The shield wires to the VFD terminate to the green ground bus below the VFD. The shield wires to the signal connectors terminate to the ground connections on the individual connectors.