Update: Testing and cable tidying

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I have now completed the cabling to the extruder carriage (except, see below) and have tested each part successfully. This has included a 5V feed for the Noctua fan which I have now installed. All of the parts seem to be working well. This includes the new shielded stepper cable which is now in place for the extruder motor.


The other end of the cable goes into four positions in a 20-way socket and plug. This seems to work well and I can now create a similar cable for the X axis motor which will be the final element to connect through the new cable chains. All of the steppers will then terminate in this connector, allowing all to be removed if needed and for the shielding to be earthed at this common point.

I am now left with a lot of cables and connectors on the carriage for which I am having to create mounts. For example, my BL-Touch mount has been modified to create built-in ribbon cable slots, to hold the cables more flushly than with the original cable tie base which was a little proud before.

The ribbon cables from the Touch, simply slide into the slots to provide a flat and constrained route.

While I was redesigning for this, I added in the mount I had been considering for a nozzle LED (to be added to the existing Neopixel run on the gantry. 


This will allow a single Neopixel to be installed and the base is angled to the tip of the nozzle, with an alignment mark for mounting. I have included a second run of ribbon clips on the reverse for routing of the cabling for this.

Running the signal cables for this LED should be the last cable needed to be installed into the chains. As I already have a 5V feed for the Noctua fan, I don't need to run that again and can splice from that connection.

In a similar vein, I have also added a little extra height to the smoke alarm mount (and added a stiffening rib) to move it further away from the carriage at ZMAX.

This is a simple change to obviate any possibility of a crash. 

The next plan is to create appropriate mounts for the other new cabling to allow it to be securely mounted where needed.

The final element which I've completed is the mount for the base of the Z-axis chain, to fix it to the upright

This fits to the extrusion with a pair of screws and the chain simply clips into place. It has a locating lug on the rear to keep it aligned. 




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