cat 5/6 cable

[Daveo]

Hi
Can you use cat 5/6 between your Stepper Motor Driver Controllers TB6600 to the control unit NVEM CNC Controller 6 Axis MACH3
would it be better then single wires
Thanks Daveo

[JAZZCNC]

Yes I use it all the time. Thou use Cat5 because I think cat 6 uses solid or stiff wire, but don't quote me on that.

[Daveo]

Hi
thanks for the reply, do you use the shielded cable and if so how do you terminate or what do you connect the shielded part to.

[JAZZCNC]

Hi
thanks for the reply, do you use the shielded cable and if so how do you terminate or what do you connect the shielded part to.

Yes and no. Yes, I use a shielded cable but if the wire runs are short, less than say 500mm then I don't bother messing around with wiring the shields. The twisted pairs are enough to not get any troubles with RF.
However, if you want to cross the T's and Dot the I's then to terminate just wire one end of the shield to the main Star Earth point.

[Doddy]

For the NVEM driver (I have one sat on a shelf somewhere) - that's a single-ended output drive heading to the TB6600 which is a simple single-ended opto-isolated input device - a twisted pair designed to reduce signal noise by the merit of common-mode noise reduction doesn't really work particularly effectively. That's not to say that it won't work, but just that it won't add significant noise immunity. To be brutally honest, the drive requirements of the TB6600 (forward current draw) means that it's not particularly susceptible to noise in any case. Good wiring strategies (avoiding parallel runs with high frequency/high current signalling, and/or shielding) would be, broadly, as effective.

My one concern with the NVEM device driving the entry-level stepper drivers is borne from practical experience - the step-outputs are only 2.5us wide and can have a poor/unreliable performance with the stepper drivers. You should be able to find a post by me on this subject elsewhere on the forums.

Jazz: cba googling (need to get motivated to go to work), I think the major discriminator between cat 5/6 is the number of turns /inch in the twisted pair, and possibly also the screen coverage - but as you say, don't quote me on it. I've certainly got a reel of cat-5 in the shed that is solid core.

[Daveo]

Hi
thanks for the reply's, will have a look at some of those posts you mentioned,again thanks for the advice
daveo

[Clive S]

Jazz: cba googling (need to get motivated to go to work), I think the major discriminator between cat 5/6 is the number of turns /inch in the twisted pair, and possibly also the screen coverage - but as you say, don't quote me on it. I've certainly got a reel of cat-5 in the shed that is solid core.

Doesn't cat 6 have a plastic filler as well to separate the 4 set of wires ?

[JAZZCNC]

I've certainly got a reel of cat-5 in the shed that is solid core.

I've got reverse, full reel of Cat 6 Solid core.?

Doesn't cat 6 have a plastic filler as well to separate the 4 set of wires ?

Don't think the stuff I've got does Clive, I'll check it thou and report back.

[DaveL]

In the IT World, solid core cable is used for installing wiring that is not expected to move, i.e. runs from room to room. While the stranded cable is use for patch leads on panels and the last link into a machine from the wall port, where some movement of the cable is likely.