Shield cables for stepper motor

Hi everybody,

actually I am building a 3-axis machine for monitoring using ultrasound transducers. The movement of the head which has the ultrasound transducers is done by stepper motor, in the same way as a 3D printer. All the motor cables are placing inside of a cable channel and here is where I have doubts. ¿Is it possible that the pulse used for the rotation of a stepper motor, can create an interference in the other cables? We are using NEMA 23, which can achieve pulse of 2A per coil. In other words, when we need to use shield cables? Is it necesary to use them with stepper motor?

Thank you very much,
Antonio.

Personally I would I try to use it on most small steppers but there are instances with very large steppers where it becomes cost prohibitive

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2014 09:19AM by cnc dick.

One of the most important things, whether or not you use shielding, it to use twisted-pair wires for the motors. (The A winding + and - leads should be twisted together and the B + and - leads twisted together.) This dramatically reduces the amount of noise radiated from the cables.

Antonio,
Steppers are extremely noisy electrically speaking so you really should use shielded cable with a braided shield not foil. This is because the frequency of the pulses is very high and up in the range of radio waves. Ground the shield at the driver end only, unless the motor frame is completely isolated from ground by being on a plastic mount. When other wires are involved do not install them parallel to the motor wires if at all possible, and if so they should be shielded too. When possible always cross the motor wires at a 90 degree angle. Igus, the plastic bearing people make very good shielded cables for motion applications, but they are expensive. About $600 on my machine because the cable runs are all about 15' long. However i have had not a single noise issue or glitch of any kind.