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Wiring in the Base
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:18 pm
by lumpy_potato
Hey all,
So I popped a fuse and decided that as long as I'm pulling the RAMBO out, I might as well re-do some of the wiring to make it neater. Add to that the new fans I have to hook up (80mm push/pull, and a tiny 40mm on a heatsink for the extruder).
I'm curious if anyone would be willing to share how they handled wire management in that rats nest or any best-practices in wire routing to provide max air-flow through the base.
I accessed the bottom by loosening the bolts and lifting the entire top-panel of the base up - it slides right up the towers and sits at a slight angle, providing easy access to the innards. Might actually end up doing some other fixes while I'm in there

Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 1:30 pm
by stonewater
next time I have to do any amount of work on my board the whole thing is coming out and not going back in.... it will get a dedicated external fan cooled enclosure with a bundled wiring loom to the printer.... just too hard to work on when you blow a fuse. led on the tom of the box. it may just get screwed to the current face of one side of the printer.
Tom C
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:09 pm
by teoman
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:28 pm
by lumpy_potato
I swear my entire floor just heard my HNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG at viewing that thread.
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:54 pm
by teoman
Its 3d printer porn man.
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 5:01 pm
by teoman
How do you fair with electricity?
Go to a hobby shop, get some silicone coated noodle wire. Open up the PSU, remove all the wires except the ones for the on off switch and solder the appropriate gauge noodle wires right in to the psu.
That way you have a single wire to each of the rambo power input connectors.
Oh while you are there a 10 awg noodle wire to the heated bed. The stock wiring is very insufficient.
You are playing with high voltages which could kill you so only attempt this if you are familiar with high voltages and electricity.
http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=5718
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:40 pm
by KAS
What Teoman said might be the best way to declutter the octopus mess in the base.
I did this for a smoothieboard that uses a few more power wires than the Rambo, but you'll get the idea.
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:39 am
by lumpy_potato
teoman wrote:How do you fair with electricity?
Go to a hobby shop, get some silicone coated noodle wire. Open up the PSU, remove all the wires except the ones for the on off switch and solder the appropriate gauge noodle wires right in to the psu.
That way you have a single wire to each of the rambo power input connectors.
Oh while you are there a 10 awg noodle wire to the heated bed. The stock wiring is very insufficient.
You are playing with high voltages which could kill you so only attempt this if you are familiar with high voltages and electricity.
http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=5718
Had not considered this route. Not sure about popping the PSU open but I've heard more than a few times that reference to using a bigger wire for the heated bed. How much of an improvement would there be? I'm just hoping to avoid having to remove and replace the heated bed. I recall that operation of getting all the stupid screws to fit properly being a real pain.
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 12:25 pm
by teoman
I had the 2 standard cheesy wires and it would not get to 100.
95 was the max, and over time it slowly dropped to 80 when i realised that the connctor going to the bed was fried.
Then i made an ssr and put 24v to the bed. That worked fine untill i did something stupid and burned my ssr.
Now i am installing 10AWG wires to the bed. I will let you know how it goes. Taking pictures, i can post them with results if you like.
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 3:22 pm
by lumpy_potato
teoman wrote:I had the 2 standard cheesy wires and it would not get to 100.
95 was the max, and over time it slowly dropped to 80 when i realised that the connctor going to the bed was fried.
Then i made an ssr and put 24v to the bed. That worked fine untill i did something stupid and burned my ssr.
Now i am installing 10AWG wires to the bed. I will let you know how it goes. Taking pictures, i can post them with results if you like.
I would be thankful, certainly. So far I've had no need to go very high - am thinking of doing PETG which some people have had success at 80C. Still, its something I should do sooner rather than later if there are good gains.
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:06 am
by Jimustanguitar
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 11:50 am
by lumpy_potato
Looks like they soldered the endstops / motors directly to the board?
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 12:01 pm
by Jimustanguitar
lumpy_potato wrote:Looks like they soldered the endstops / motors directly to the board?
I think it's a work in progress and those might not be plugged in yet.
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 1:11 pm
by ZakRabbit
Re: Wiring in the Base
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 1:44 pm
by Eaglezsoar
I agree with ZakRabbit.