HBP Harness Strain Relief

[pyronaught]

I'm looking at the complete lack of strain relief on the wires going to the HBP and wondering how long it will be before the wires break from the constant bending motion they experience as the platform moves. Has anyone added strain relief to this area or had their wires break?

[ednisley]

added strain relief to this area

That looked like it was going to be a problem, so I added a strut to the support bracket under the spider:

http://softsolder.com/2013/07/05/makerg ... ilization/


I think it's important to have the wires attached to the support, not the spider, to avoid having the force that's flexing the wires affect the platform alignment. With the strut as shown, the support takes all the flexing force and the wires don't move between the strut and the platform. Even if the wires break, they'll do so beyond the connectors where they're cheap and easy to repair.



I've since upgraded to a higher-power heater and slightly different mechanics, driven by an external SSR that gets the high current out of the RAMBo board. That same old strut supports the new Powerpole connectors and heavier wires that have a longer strain relief loop.

Everything has been working fine for the last year and a half, so I'll call it Good Enough. It's been justifiably criticized as not looking "professional":

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1712&p=6688#p6688

But, on the upside, it's still working... [grin]

[pyronaught]

Boy you've got a good solution to every problem on this machine don't you. Yes, not having to fix broken wires is better than looking good. Finding something to attach the wires to was stumping me. I thought about maybe trying to zip-tie the harness to the handles of one of the clips that holds the glass to the plate. I need my wire to exit to the right side since I don't have any space between the plate and the wall of my cabinet for anything to stick beyond the back edge of the plate by more than an inch. It sort of has to go off to the right at a 45 angle, otherwise it will hit the right side support too.

[ednisley]

don't have any space ... for anything to stick beyond the back edge of the plate

If you remove the HBP wires from the loom, you could probably ease them down and forward, attach them to the platform support arm, then route them off to the lower right. There might be (barely) enough space to avoid the electronics box when the platform sits all the way down and forward.

I'd recommend just replacing the wires with a longer run of heavier copper, put Powerpoles on each end, and be done with it. That lets you route the wires easily, without "will it reach?" problems.

a good solution to every problem on this machine

Suffice it to say that the M2 started out much better than my Thing-O-Matic, needing only minor tweaks!

[pyronaught]

My computer is actually not attached to the machine, it is located "below deck" with the wires running up through a hole in the table top. The HBP cable still has plenty of length though. I think I'll zip tie it to the spider arm like jimc did, that would put it in about the right spot. I never did have any luck with the cable being zip tied to the stepper motor like the instructions show, that just seemed to put a lot more stress on the wires than how I currently have it.

I didn't mean to imply that the M2 has a lot of problems, these are just minor things. I looked at a lot of machines out there and the M2 looked like the best built one in this price range. I'm very happy with it.