Wires don't match instructions... ARGH!

[GPriv]

PAGE 27 of instructions:
"start by locating six long yellow and black wires in the power supply..."

Does this refer to the TWO separate "bundles" of yellow and black wires?

ONE bundle has 3 black and 3 yellow.
The OTHER bundle has 4 black and 4 yellow.

"Clip the yellow and black wires you've chosen from the connectors..."
Huh? ANY black and yellow wires?

Further down on PAGE 27:

"You'll then want to locate one black wire and the green wire on the large ATX
connector and cut those free as well..."

ANY black? (and the one green.)


PAGE 29:
"Now take the four long black wires from the bundle and strip about 3/4” of insulation from
each..."

Huh? First, it's talking about THREE wires from the bundle. Now it jumps to FOUR wires... Please explain.

"Install the four bundled black and yellow wires into the far left of the connector as shown in
Fig. 4-13 on the next page and then insert the remaining power wires into the connector as shown.
Please pay careful attention to the order of installation! If you reverse the yellow and black locations,
you'll destroy the RAMBo when you turn on the power."

This is entirely unclear. I have SEVEN black and SEVEN yellow (from the two bundles described above (bundle of 6 and bundle of 8 total).

So...the pictured wires do not add up to the amount of wires I have cut from the connectors.

Please help. I can send pictures if I can figure out how to do it.

[Brian]

Except for the green wire, you should leave al the wires alone if they go to the large connectors and only use wires on the smaller connectors. They should all be either black, yellow or red on those connectors.

Ignore the bundles or cut off the bundling material and count the number of wires as called out. ATX Computer power supplies have a color code that calls out what each color wire is for. Any wires are good as long as the color is what is called out. They all are the same color and therefore all have the same voltage as the other wires of the same color. You can use any yellow wire with any other.

It's a lot easier than saying "Strip 4 of the +12V wires and 4 of the GND wires"

Any black and any green for the power switch. There should only be 1 green present in the bundles.

Larger capacity power supplies may have more of the Yellow, Red, and Black wires or more bundles of them. Don't worry if you have extras left over. Just connect the number of each color called out to the destination called out. Extra wires left over after the wiring is done can be coiled up and stowed away inside the base for future expansion. You can put tape over the loose connectors to prevent short circuits if you like.

[GPriv]

Excellent. This is all I needed. I was worried about the extra yellows and blacks. Instructions don't mention the extras. Didn't want to assume anything.

Also, on PAGE 30 Fig. 3-13:

I want to be sure I see what the picture is:
IN ORDER, Left to right:
4 blacks-3 yellows-1 black-1yellow-1black-1yellow. Yes?

Thank you!!!!

[PhoenixNZ]

Hey mate, I think one of the yellow wires is hidden from the shot in Fig.3-13

The RAMBo connector should have, from left to right, as per Fig.3-13:

4B | 4Y | 1B | 1Y | 1B | 1Y

This, plus the on/off switch wires should mean you have a total of:
7 Black, 6 Yellow and 1 Green wire. These should all be connected to *something*

Don't worry if you clipped off more than you needed. Any excess wires you've clipped off should just get a bit of electrical tape on them to insulate them and then get tucked out of the way.

[craftymethod]

Remember when you are installing your wires into the rambo that you don't want all the wires heading up (north) from its mounting position. When you install the rambo there is no room for your wires (north/up)!!!

(my experience anyway)

[GPriv]

Brian, Phoenix, Craftymethod,

Big thanx! I've got some confidence back!

Craftymethod, I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting. I haven't proceeded further than page 30, so I haven't got the foggiest of what you're referring. I hope it becomes obvious when I get there. I'm cutting the black and yellows to 13" as prescribed.

Again, thanx!

[craftymethod]

I finished wiring a V2 last week and I had the rambo out when i was wiring it and cause all the wires were coming in from the top, I bundled the wires to go that way.

but they dont fit that way when installing the board.. only left or right

[guanu]

motor and endstop wires can go off to the side, but the wood piece the rambo mounts on IS notched at the top so your power and fan wires can loop over the top and behind the rambo.. the very first ones didnt have that, and it was added at least 7 months ago, so they all should be like that. But yes, the power and fan wires definately can loop over the top and behind the rambo..

Guanu

[BONE]

PAGE 27 of instructions:
"start by locating six long yellow and black wires in the power supply..."

Does this refer to the TWO separate "bundles" of yellow and black wires?

ONE bundle has 3 black and 3 yellow.
The OTHER bundle has 4 black and 4 yellow.

"Clip the yellow and black wires you've chosen from the connectors..."
Huh? ANY black and yellow wires?

Further down on PAGE 27:

"You'll then want to locate one black wire and the green wire on the large ATX
connector and cut those free as well..."

ANY black? (and the one green.)


PAGE 29:
"Now take the four long black wires from the bundle and strip about 3/4” of insulation from
each..."

Huh? First, it's talking about THREE wires from the bundle. Now it jumps to FOUR wires... Please explain.

"Install the four bundled black and yellow wires into the far left of the connector as shown in
Fig. 4-13 on the next page and then insert the remaining power wires into the connector as shown.
Please pay careful attention to the order of installation! If you reverse the yellow and black locations,
you'll destroy the RAMBo when you turn on the power."

This is entirely unclear. I have SEVEN black and SEVEN yellow (from the two bundles described above (bundle of 6 and bundle of 8 total).

So...the pictured wires do not add up to the amount of wires I have cut from the connectors.

Please help. I can send pictures if I can figure out how to do it.

You just verbalized every that was in my head when I was working on the black and yellow wires. SeeMeCNC needs to simplify the entire wiring process with an external wiring option while making the wiring much more plug and play. What til you get to routing the wires inside of the aluminum extrusion, that's fun, took me two hours.

[RegB]

I think there may be a bit of confusion now that 550 Watt supplies are shipping.
They seem to have "more"...

Anyway, yes 4 black and 4 yellow for the first locations - I think this is more about CURRENT CAPACITY than anything else, i.e. the hot end AND heated bed between them take some AMPS when cold and a couple of skinny wires would get a bit warm.

[Brian]

You can always open up the power supply itself and remove all the wires you don't need. That makes it a lot cleaner.

You can take it a step further and replace the "ganged wires" with nice silicone insulated high capacity single wires.

If you're really compulsive, you can get mesh sleeves in various sizes to bundle all your wires.

If you're really off the rails, you can get a higher capacity power supply that matches the color scheme of your chassis.

Power Supply Perfection

P.S. The wire bundle with the red wires is the only original wire I kept intact. I wanted to leave a 5V harness available for use with future upgrades I plan on making. You could get away with just the 2 bundles.

[GPriv]

Thanx, RegB.

Ithink the company should go through the pictures/descriptions and do some editing/updating.
Now, I'm at the Onyx platter and it doesn't have all the holes as depicted in the pics. Minor, but just goes to show that, hey, I've plunked down hard-earned cash for a "complete kit with instructions". That's how it's advertised, yes?

[GPriv]

Holy SH!T, those are all the wires needed???? All the rest of 'em are just hangin' out for the sh!ts and giggles????

[GPriv]

Brian,
By the way, I noticed you replaced the gang-of-four (blacks and also yellows) with a single fatty. I like that. Very clean overall, but I especially like that touch. Bravo.

[Eaglezsoar]

Thanx, RegB.

Ithink the company should go through the pictures/descriptions and do some editing/updating.
Now, I'm at the Onyx platter and it doesn't have all the holes as depicted in the pics. Minor, but just goes to show that, hey, I've plunked down hard-earned cash for a "complete kit with instructions". That's how it's advertised, yes?

The people at Seemecnc makes improvements to the printers all the time and it is virtually impossible for Geneb to document the changes until he obtains the list of changes. I personally thank the gang at Seemecnc for continuing the
updates to the printers with the goal of making them better. I also feel that these printers have the best documentation of any kit printer, bar none. Are there going to be some changes that have not been documented? Yep, and
there always will be. I will always believe that Seemecnc makes the best printer kits available and Geneb writes the best documentation found anywhere. The best part, 98% of the Seemecnc kit builders agree with me.

[GPriv]

Thanx, RegB.

Ithink the company should go through the pictures/descriptions and do some editing/updating.
Now, I'm at the Onyx platter and it doesn't have all the holes as depicted in the pics. Minor, but just goes to show that, hey, I've plunked down hard-earned cash for a "complete kit with instructions". That's how it's advertised, yes?

The people at Seemecnc makes improvements to the printers all the time and it is virtually impossible for Geneb to document the changes until he obtains the list of changes. I personally thank the gang at Seemecnc for continuing the
updates to the printers with the goal of making them better. I also feel that these printers have the best documentation of any kit printer, bar none. Are there going to be some changes that have not been documented? Yep, and
there always will be. I will always believe that Seemecnc makes the best printer kits available and Geneb writes the best documentation found anywhere. The best part, 98% of the Seemecnc kit builders agree with me.

Cannot dispute that. First time 3D buyer/experience. So far, the complaints are "minor". So far, I think this build is a blast and looking forward to printing.

[Eaglezsoar]

Cannot dispute that. First time 3D buyer/experience. So far, the complaints are "minor". So far, I think this build is a blast and looking forward to printing.

You have a great build and enjoy your new printer. Show us some pictures when you get a chance.

[Brian]

Brian,
By the way, I noticed you replaced the gang-of-four (blacks and also yellows) with a single fatty. I like that. Very clean overall, but I especially like that touch. Bravo.

Thanks. You don't need the one harness shown. I left it there because it was 5V and if I ever added something with a servo on it the 5V would be handy.

I used high quality 14gauge copper stranded wire normally sold for high powered quadrotors. It's expensive, but I wanted the build as neat as possible. I probably spent 60 hours assembling the thing back in April/May. I tweaked everything like a Chip Foose custom car. Well, not quite as bad as that... LOL. I took a lot of photos and videos for a build log which I want to produce, but having too much fun printing and learning best practices at the moment!

[Brian]

Thanx, RegB.

Ithink the company should go through the pictures/descriptions and do some editing/updating.
Now, I'm at the Onyx platter and it doesn't have all the holes as depicted in the pics. Minor, but just goes to show that, hey, I've plunked down hard-earned cash for a "complete kit with instructions". That's how it's advertised, yes?

The people at Seemecnc makes improvements to the printers all the time and it is virtually impossible for Geneb to document the changes until he obtains the list of changes. I personally thank the gang at Seemecnc for continuing the
updates to the printers with the goal of making them better. I also feel that these printers have the best documentation of any kit printer, bar none. Are there going to be some changes that have not been documented? Yep, and
there always will be. I will always believe that Seemecnc makes the best printer kits available and Geneb writes the best documentation found anywhere. The best part, 98% of the Seemecnc kit builders agree with me.

This forum is very helpful for resolving snags in the documentation. I found it a great resource.

[GPriv]

I'm not up to those standards but I am getting rid of wires. What's your suggestion on doing it? Clip at the base of them, or do you actually heat the solder and yank?
I'll leave a bundle, for the future. You suggest the black/red/yellow quad bundle? I don't know squat about electronics so volts/amps/current speak may as well be Zimbation.

[Brian]

I'm not up to those standards but I am getting rid of wires. What's your suggestion on doing it? Clip at the base of them, or do you actually heat the solder and yank?
I'll leave a bundle, for the future. You suggest the black/red/yellow quad bundle? I don't know squat about electronics so volts/amps/current speak may as well be Zimbation.

I opened up the supply and desoldered the unused wires. I had to do that so I could make room to drill a larger hole that would allow me to solder the 14gauge wire to my power supply board.

It should be possible to open the power supply and clip off the unused wires at the very base where they are soldered. You want to do this very carefully because the wires are comprised of many little fine wire strands and you have to make sure you don't have any leftover short strands sticking up from the board or loose inside the supply. If you are neat about it, you will not have any issues.

I want to stress to anyone else reading this topic in the future, DO NOT simply clip the wires off the outside of the power supply case. This is very bad practice. A short could turn up later if you do this. You MUST get rid of all the wires at the point where they solder to the circuit board, flush with the board, so no loose strands are left.

[BONE]

I think there may be a bit of confusion now that 550 Watt supplies are shipping.
They seem to have "more"...

Anyway, yes 4 black and 4 yellow for the first locations - I think this is more about CURRENT CAPACITY than anything else, i.e. the hot end AND heated bed between them take some AMPS when cold and a couple of skinny wires would get a bit warm.

I got a 550W power supply also. It was not straight forward. It be nice to see instructions on how to get rid of the unused wires also.

[teoman]

I thouht the manual on the wires was fairly straight forward. But then again I deal with wires as a part of my work.

However it could be much nicer for the perfectionnist.

[GPriv]

I thouht the manual on the wires was fairly straight forward. But then again I deal with wires as a part of my work.

However it could be much nicer for the perfectionnist.

I'm a total layman when it comes to wiring. I dislike dealing with wiring, soldering, etc. I'm currently building an e-bike as a project (very custom, thus the purchase of the 3D printer) and having to deal with just an on/off switch that is small, neat, clean, and can handle 30a (48v battery/1000w motor) is more painful than the dentist without anesthesia.
That's where I'm coming from, so: no, the whole wiring sections with these instructions are a bit sketchy. And, I know it's because I "just don't know". Example: the part where it says to bend the two little wire thingies protruding from that little glass pimple thingie... How long should the "stem" be before it gets to the 90 degree bend? Does it matter? Don't know. The not-knowing is excruciating. (the pictures don't give a (size) reference, so simply having the picture doesn't tell the entire story. Put a dime or penny in there, too.

[BONE]

I thouht the manual on the wires was fairly straight forward. But then again I deal with wires as a part of my work.

However it could be much nicer for the perfectionnist.

I'm a total layman when it comes to wiring. I dislike dealing with wiring, soldering, etc. I'm currently building an e-bike as a project (very custom, thus the purchase of the 3D printer) and having to deal with just an on/off switch that is small, neat, clean, and can handle 30a (48v battery/1000w motor) is more painful than the dentist without anesthesia.
That's where I'm coming from, so: no, the whole wiring sections with these instructions are a bit sketchy. And, I know it's because I "just don't know". Example: the part where it says to bend the two little wire thingies protruding from that little glass pimple thingie... How long should the "stem" be before it gets to the 90 degree bend? Does it matter? Don't know. The not-knowing is excruciating. (the pictures don't give a (size) reference, so simply having the picture doesn't tell the entire story. Put a dime or penny in there, too.

Agreed. Get rid of the wordy bits and the lost chapter stuff, focus more on technical writing in the manual. Now don't get me wrong and I know there is a lot of work that went into it, I also would be completely lost without it. It just needs to be a step by step process manual. I am not a wiring person, never like dealing with wires while I know people that are completely at ease with wires. Also, please stop from making people try and crimp D-sub pins, that is just cruel and unusual punishment. You have to have good quality crimpers to get them to work right. At least pre-install the pins on to wires that to the correct length of wire needed.

Example of manual format, at least what I think it should look.

1. Power Supply Modification

1.1. Remove power supply from box.
1.2. Locate the 6 Yellow and 6 Black wires shown in Fig. 1.2
1.2.1. Separate wires from harness
1.3. Locate the Green and Black wires show in Fig. 1.3
1.3.1. Separate wires from harness
1.4. Now cut the connectors from the wires that have been separated from the harness. Dis-guard connectors, as they will not be needed for the rest of the build.