Too-small wire gauge on Dupont connectors?
Posted by qrp-gaijin
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Too-small wire gauge on Dupont connectors? April 08, 2021 06:00AM |
I have a working 3D printer, but need to replace the 4-pin connectors that connect the stepper motors and the controller board. The reason is that I am buying a new controller board and the old connectors won't fit. For the new board, I plan to use 4-pin DuPont connectors.
To make things easy for myself (I thought), I bought some pre-made 4-wire cables with DuPont connectors.
I failed to consider the required wire gauge, and after receiving the cables and doing more research on similar cables, I think that the cables I bought have 28 AWG wire. Reference: [forum.allaboutcircuits.com]
My stepper motors are marked with "1.2A" on the housing.
My plan was to cut these wires in half (leaving a 5-cm length of four 28 AWG wires, connected to the 4-pin DuPont connector) and solder the individual wires to the existing long wires on my stepper motors.
Assuming the original and existing wire gauge on the stepper motors is adequate for the required currents, then my question is: is it safe to use an additional 5-cm length of 28 AWG thin wire to connect the existing thick wires to the control board? This implies there will be a short 5-cm run of thin wires with possibly insufficient current-carrying capacity, but since the thin wires are so short, maybe it would still be safe since the heat buildup over such a short length of wire wouldn't cause problems.
Furthermore, it seems that 28 AWG ribbon cable might in fact be able to handle the 1.2A current from the stepper motor. Reference: [www.mosaic-industries.com] . That reference says that "max current for chassis wiring" for 28 AWG ribbon cable is 1.4A.
What do you RepRappers think? Is 28 AWG ribbon cable safe to use for connecting to 1.2A stepper motors?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2021 10:41AM by qrp-gaijin.
To make things easy for myself (I thought), I bought some pre-made 4-wire cables with DuPont connectors.
I failed to consider the required wire gauge, and after receiving the cables and doing more research on similar cables, I think that the cables I bought have 28 AWG wire. Reference: [forum.allaboutcircuits.com]
My stepper motors are marked with "1.2A" on the housing.
My plan was to cut these wires in half (leaving a 5-cm length of four 28 AWG wires, connected to the 4-pin DuPont connector) and solder the individual wires to the existing long wires on my stepper motors.
Assuming the original and existing wire gauge on the stepper motors is adequate for the required currents, then my question is: is it safe to use an additional 5-cm length of 28 AWG thin wire to connect the existing thick wires to the control board? This implies there will be a short 5-cm run of thin wires with possibly insufficient current-carrying capacity, but since the thin wires are so short, maybe it would still be safe since the heat buildup over such a short length of wire wouldn't cause problems.
Furthermore, it seems that 28 AWG ribbon cable might in fact be able to handle the 1.2A current from the stepper motor. Reference: [www.mosaic-industries.com] . That reference says that "max current for chassis wiring" for 28 AWG ribbon cable is 1.4A.
What do you RepRappers think? Is 28 AWG ribbon cable safe to use for connecting to 1.2A stepper motors?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2021 10:41AM by qrp-gaijin.
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