Really stupid sounding question

X-Carve Troubleshooting
1

This is starting to irritate the crap out of me. The wiring will not stay seated on the gshield. The machine was working fine last night, turned it off for the nigh. Returned today to a Y-axis not working. Checked the wiring, then opened the case to find one of the wires just hanging completely exposed. Every time I turn around I am having to open this thing up and reseat wires. When I screw them down I can feel it grab the wire. When I let go there it is again. It’s only a matter of time before something shorts it all out.

So, am I the only one having this issue or is there a secret to it?

2

Retry setting them but start by backing the set screw all the way out so you can visibly see the opening and then re-clamp. I did this with one wire, where I just stuck it in and tightened and it felt like it grabbed but it wasn’t actually in the clamp but on top or pinched in the side or something. Also, make sure you have slack, because the clamps aren’t going to hold against any jerking or tension, they’re pretty weak.

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3

One of the things which I did to help this sort of thing was to make a bracket which secured the wiring leading up to the gShield — that way it didn’t move at the connection and the screw didn’t have to resist any forces.

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5

Two things that will hugely improve the quality of that screw terminal connection are wire ferrules or tinning the striped end of the wire with solder.

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6

Don’t tin the wire leads w/ solder save for the very tips (if necessary to insert them) — that will become brittle over time and cause the connection to weaken.

The wire ferrules are a good idea and make for a very neat appearance.

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7

Thanks Will. I’d still consider a weakened connection preferable to wires dangling in the breeze, but @DavidLentz definitely look into ferrules first.

8

A big issue for you may be the motion/vibration from the machine itself being transmitted via the wire bundle.

I used a set of terminal/barrier strips
running the wires from the electronics to the strip and from the machine to the other side of the strip.

Solved my issues and made it much easier to disconnect and reconnect if I needed to.

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9

This is what I did from day 1 and have never had any problems with wire connections. Plus they’re crazy cheap on ebay.

10

My personal opinion is to always tin the wires. Some connectors are just a screw (i thing the gshield has an extra lip). I’ve had it occur before that the strands get pushed aside from the screw going down, and resulting in bad contact. Therefor I always tin so the wire remains 1 solid wire. If for some reason in 5 years the brittle tinbecomes a problem, i’d say it was still worth it and easily fixed if or when it occurs

11

Thanks everyone… I actually did tin the wires, but even that didn’t help. I ended up just rewiring it. Different copper wire in the terminals spliced to the original wires. Works like a champ again. I’ll rewire it again with the terminal blocks to tidy it up. I have to check wiring again anyway to see why the Z-axis limiter switch isn’t working.

12

from my experience those terminal blocks are more of a nuisance than a help. I had 3 of four bad contacts when I used those in like 2 weeks time.

13

One of the best things I find is to anchor down the rest of the cable so it isn’t touched causing the wires to pull out.

14

Right now I just have the controller on top of the stand I built for the machine. Once it finally stops raining here and I can get outside I’ll build something more secure and out of the way for it. I’m sure that will help some. Then secure the cables better.