Remove all un-used power cables?

[jeffhuber]

Hi, I'm having a hard time fitting the Rambo in the base - partially due to all the power cords that arent used. Is it a bad idea to remove the ones that are not being used?

If it's ok to do, how would I do that? Snip them and cover the ends in Kapton?

[Jimustanguitar]

You ought to be able to snip the zip-ties that loom the power wires together, or slide the snakeskin back if they're wrapped that way, and get them out of the way without any cutting or additional work.

If you do decide to cut wires though, I would actually advise using crimp caps or small wire-nuts on the loose wires.

[jeffhuber]

Thanks Jim! That's a great recommendation

[Captain Starfish]

I cut the plugs off 'em all, then teased out the ones I needed from the ones I didn't.

The unwanted ones I bundled together in groups by colour, taped off the ends to prevent unlucky shorting, then rolled and cable tied the rolls right next to the PSU.

As a result I have a big bundle of unused cable in the PSU bay, and only the required wires going through to the RAMBo. Advantage of not cutting: when I wanted to add a fan, or take 5V up to the extruder for a thermocouple interface (for example), I just had to tease out what I needed. No need to try and splice wires back on etc.

[jprochnow]

I opened the whole power supply up and removed all the wires except for the needed ones. I then shortened all the wires that were left. This saved a bunch of space.

[Polygonhell]

Just a warning if you are removing unused wires, on the 25 pin connector on some PSU's, two wires run into one pin, connecting 3.3V to the sense pin (at least I think it's 3.3v), if you remove the unused wires, you should jumper that inside the PSU. Some PSU's don't care, others do.

[teoman]

O. I did cut some of the connectors and I used shrinkwrap to seal the ends of the wires.

[teoman]

If I were to start my build today, I would remove all the wires, and put a thick piece of noodle wire of the appropriate gauge. Making things nice and tidy.


I would also leave a 12v 5v and 3.3 spare for random future projects.