Metal shielded cabling

[alanb]

The DRO on my mill is connected to the sensors by some spiral bound metal cable cover. Could anyone tell me where I can buy this covering as I want to use it to shield the connects from my steppers to their control box. Also I am thinking of buying/making a new control box out of Aluminium (using home made wooden box at present). Can anyone suggest a source, I do not want to use a full sized PC case but a box say 400 x 400 x150 mm would do fine.

Thanks Alan

[BillTodd]

Full steel wrap flexible conduit is *******g expensive (~£100-200 for 25m) and primarily for mechanical protection. If you want to screen the cables electrically then use a good foil screened cable (also expensive).

http://uk.farnell.com/pro-elec/61804604/conduit-st-steel-m25-25m/dp/1642126


http://uk.farnell.com/productimages/farnell/standard/1642124-40.jpg

a cheaper option is metal/plastic (basically a plastic coated spring), again this is primarilly for mechanical protection.

http://uk.farnell.com/pro-elec/64400110/conduit-metal-plastic-pg9-10m/dp/1642134

http://uk.farnell.com/productimages/farnell/standard/1642134-40.jpg

If you can use thin cables then this 16mm stuff is not too badly priced (£23 for 10m)

http://uk.farnell.com/kopex/keu0310/conduit-flexible-16mm-10m-reel/dp/480563

http://uk.farnell.com/productimages/farnell/standard/1318550.jpg

[ptjw7uk]

I thought the consensus was that the cables to the steppers do not need shielding as they are twisted pair!

Peter

[BillTodd]

Twisted pairs are far from perfect and don't stop RF interference getting into your device (i.e. from a plasma cutter)

[tribbles]

In the kit car world, shower attachment pipes have been used for cabling (although it's primarily for appearance rather than shielding - but it would have the same effect).

I've seen £3 for 2m lengths on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Flexible-shower-bathroom-hose-head-pipe-2-Metres-chrome_W0QQitemZ230427014791QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=&rvr_id=&cguid=eec3c98911c0a0e20394ab44ffa69507

Although it does say £4.99 later on - which means for 10m, it would be £25. So similar to the Farnell price...