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I am adding some additional layer fans to the Rostock Max v2 and connectorizing them seems to be a smart way to go about it to help with hot-end maintenance or upgrades in the future.

However, I am no Electrical Engineer. I can crimp, splice, and solder for my DIY hobbies; but if someone could direct me to a series of connectors they used for this purpose I'd be ever so grateful.

I *think* these fan wires are about 26 AWG and the thermistor wires are about 22 AWG while the hot-end wires are 18 AWG. I suppose it makes sense for me to splice in these connectors for all the lines now.

i used these from amazon for the heater resistors
LHI 10 Pairs XT-60 XT60 Male Female Bullet Connectors Plugs For RC Lipo Battery
[img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BPzD45wrL.jpg[/img]
they would be rather bulky for the fans and thermistor and so i used these
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/c ... onnectors/
the JST line I bought the 20 off of each of the first 4 items on that page
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/c ... connectors
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/c ... /jstbec_fh
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/c ... /jstbec_ft
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/c ... /jstbec_mh
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/c ... /jstbec_mt

I strongly recommend that you get a ratcheting crimper like this to assemble them
http://www.hansenhobbies.com/products/c ... s/crimp_dx
and take a gander at this video on how to do the crimping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vptd2n5p5-I
I waisted some time and a few terminals attempting to juggle the wire the terminal and then with my third hand a cheap non ratcheting crimper before i was pointed to this video

What considerations do we have to make for the thermistor connectors? Introducing connectors with different metals, could that introduce errors into the reading?

adding something with a higher resistance can cause the temperature to be somewhat offset. So you'd want something with a lower contact resistance. Maybe silver plated? The thermistor is 100K ohm at room temperature ish, so it shouldn't be that terrible a distortion, and there's already variability in thermistors. I suggest doing something like tuning your beta values for your thermistor after you've added the connector, using a thermocouple and multimeter, or another accurate temperature reading device. There's a guide to that somewhere on these forums (I am not using thermistors, and didn't use them for long either, and the PT100 makes doing that weird, so I don't have the link or remember it, I just know it exists)

Great! One last question -- when wiring in multiple (Qty.3) layer fans, would you just spice all 3 red wires together, all 3 black wires together, and just run them from the same control circuit? The prospect of running an additional 4 wires through one of the 80/20 rods is... less than appealing.

all the parts i linked to have gold plating on the contacts but that id more for multiple connect disconnect events... gold does better in that case i am told

It would probably be ideal to do it that way. I personally end up running a large quantity of wiring for random things, and I haven't even gotten to multi-extrusion yet, so I'm printing cable ducts to go up the side of the printer. While perfectly serviceable cable routing solutions exist, they are aesthetically far from perfect, and are not well suited to use inside a woodshop where they will fill with sawdust or such.

The fans have relatively beefy MOSFETs and fuses so you can run more than one on the same circuit easily. I personally would do something like wiring a little Y connector ish thing (but with 3 tails), so that you can disconnect them separately in case you have a need to replace one, since you're already using connectors.

Also, Wind, the gold plating is mostly for tarnish resistance, as gold does not corrode, tarnish, or rust. Silver does, as do most other metals.

If i were doing my hotend again, i would solder cables to the hotend and have the connectors up top.

Would make a cleaner setup in my opinion. And you do not have the connectors rattling about around the hotend.

Disadvantage is you have to add wires to each different hotend. And potentially rethread some wires if you want to only change one component on your hotend.

If i were doing my hotend again, i would solder cables to the hotend and have the connectors up top.

That's how mine is currently setup, I started with inline connectors (deans and JST connectors), but panel mounted connectors with long wires just made more sense to me. You don't have to worry about the size of the connector, so they end up being less fiddly.

I wired for multiple hotends when I moved the connectors to the top. Unfortunately I have an early V1, and there was no way I was disassembling it to run wires through the towers, so my solution to getting the wires to the top was pretty ugly.

I have mine connected using Deans-T connectors for the Hotend and Mini-T for the thermisistor.

XT-60 are a little overkill, bulkier but easier to use than the Deans.

I think when i require mine ill be using gold bullet connectors, 1.5mm for the Them and 3mm for the hot end. they're much lower profile than most and will sit nicely in line.
Also impossible to accidently swap in a thermisistor into the hot end feed (same reason i use a mini T now)

Cheap source is hobbyking for most connectors.
http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking/st ... ctors.html

Sorry for pulling a necro on this thread, but I have some questions about thermistors and these connectors.

I ended up using these exact connectors for power and for my thermistor which can be found here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/322048913417?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

I am at the phase where I tested the movement of the hot end and tried heating it up to 260. The temp claims it's at 253c but I can feel absolutely no heat radiating off the hot end. The bed works fine. So...

1) Could the JST for the thermistor be an issue? I set up the custom therm table in Configure.h so that should no longer be an issue.
2) Is there some information on tuning the beta values? I have no idea what that even means but will research it. I tried using a multimeter but quickly realized I have no idea how to use it This is going to be a long process...

This is all very new to me so I'm feeling pretty lost at the moment.

Thanks!

ExplodedZombie wrote:Sorry for pulling a necro on this thread, but I have some questions about thermistors and these connectors.

I ended up using these exact connectors for power and for my thermistor which can be found here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/322048913417?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

I am at the phase where I tested the movement of the hot end and tried heating it up to 260. The temp claims it's at 253c but I can feel absolutely no heat radiating off the hot end. The bed works fine. So...

1) Could the JST for the thermistor be an issue? I set up the custom therm table in Configure.h so that should no longer be an issue.
2) Is there some information on tuning the beta values? I have no idea what that even means but will research it. I tried using a multimeter but quickly realized I have no idea how to use it This is going to be a long process...

This is all very new to me so I'm feeling pretty lost at the moment.

Thanks!

You won't feel much heat coming from the hotend when it's hot. The way to get a rough idea of how hot it is, is to push some filament through by hand. If the nozzle is above 180 or so then PLA will be able to be slowly pushed through. Above 220 and PLA will really run through it like honey.

A slightly more accurate way is to use a multimeter with a temperature probe. They're not all that expensive, I think around $30 will get you one that will last many years.

The nozzle is small, and while the temperature is high, the heat is low -- that's why it's hard to tell if it's hot or not.

JST connectors are fine for the thermistor connector. I'm using servo connectors (also called dupont connectors) for my thermistors, they work fine. The resistance of the cable will be higher than the resistance of the connector.

I really appreciate the reply. Just one problem, despite having a multimeter...I have no idea how to use it. I tried measuring resistance and ended up with a number around 3.5 or something. I thought I was measuring for 100k...so that shows you how much I know. I can probably figure out how to get a temperature gauge for it but where would I stick the thermometer? So now you know exactly how new I am to all this I'm learning, slowly but surely.

Edit: After some digging I think I finally understand the multimeter...I had it way wrong. Okay still learning as hard as I can.

ExplodedZombie wrote:I really appreciate the reply. Just one problem, despite having a multimeter...I have no idea how to use it. I tried measuring resistance and ended up with a number around 3.5 or something. I thought I was measuring for 100k...so that shows you how much I know. I can probably figure out how to get a temperature gauge for it but where would I stick the thermometer? So now you know exactly how new I am to all this I'm learning, slowly but surely.

Edit: After some digging I think I finally understand the multimeter...I had it way wrong. Okay still learning as hard as I can.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, which your edit suggests, the temperature probe is usually an added feature and is bundled with them when they are sold (You could read it without a mode for it, but it's slightly annoying, as you need to check your thermocouple type against the millivolts shown on the multimeter.) 3.5 ohms on the heater cartridge is normal and expected, and not very helpful for your issue I think. If you haven't got a thermocouple for your multimeter (If in doubt, let us know the model # and mfg, and we can look it up, or you can), then you can get a multimeter with one cheap at home despot or harbor fail.

Yeah sadly I bought this $30 multimeter that doesn't have a temp probe. I'll take a look at a hardware store nearby. Thanks for the advice!

ExplodedZombie wrote:Yeah sadly I bought this $30 multimeter that doesn't have a temp probe. I'll take a look at a hardware store nearby. Thanks for the advice!

Hey, be glad you didn't buy a Fluke meter without one (While my 370$ fluke has one, the 230$ model in it's line doesn't, but that's for a True RMS industrial multimeter. You likely will never need a meter that expensive, and for most people it's a waste of money).